Business Breakfast is sponsored by Harrogate law firm Truth Legal. 

More than half the units under construction on a Ripon business park are now pre-let ahead of the project being completed.

Canalside Business Park, which was previously used by Econ Engineering to store its 900-strong gritter hire fleet, is looking to help redress the shortage of small-scale industrial units in the district.

Owned by Canalside Developments and being constructed by HACS, it is a 25,000 sq ft development located opposite Ripon racecourse, off Navigation Way opposite Travis Perkins, and is scheduled for completion in spring next year.

Jonathan Lupton, Canalside Developments director, said: 

“Canalside Business Park will help meet the growing demand for industrial units for start-ups and growing business in our district.

“We are delighted by the fact that 65% of the units are now pre-let. Built to a modern specification, they will provide much-needed industrial space for micro businesses and SMEs.”

BID puts focus on Ripon Christmas windows

Ripon Business Improvement District is inviting businesses to enter their Christmas window competition, which has adopted a theme of peace and sanctuary.

The BID hopes as many businesses as possible get involved and make Ripon’s Christmas windows a magical spectacle.

A judging panel, consisting of the Mayor and Mayoress of Ripon Councillor Sid and Mrs Linda Hawke, the Dean of Ripon the Very Revd. John Dobson and The Stray Ferret, will be judging all the windows during the week beginning November 21.

The winning window will receive £200 in advertising from one of the BID’s media partners.

Locals and visitors will be invited to vote via social media and will have the chance to win a Ripon Hamper Company hamper.

Read more:

• Business Breakfast: Harrogate developer completes £5.5m business park
• Business Breakfast: Harrogate event celebrates success of inclusion project

The BID will be running its Christmas marketing campaign using the #christmasinripon and will include video footage of the windows and festivities.

The Visit Ripon website will have a dedicated Christmas page highlighting the businesses Christmas windows, offers and events.

Businesses are asked to confirm whether they wish to enter by November 14 via info@riponbid.co.uk and be ready for judging by the panel during the week beginning November 21.

The Ripon Christmas brochure, whose production is being supported by the BID, will be available to businesses and the public both in print and online at the beginning of November and Seasonal music in Market Square will complement the BID’s ‘Free After Three’ car parking on Friday November 25, and on December 2, 9 and 16.

Simon Kent, who helped to establish Harrogate Business Improvement District in 2018, has been appointed interim manager for a second time.

The news was confirmed today after current manager Matthew Chapman announced he was leaving in November to take up a new position at North Yorkshire Council.

Businesses within Harrogate’s town centre pay the BID 1.5 per cent of their rateable value a year on top of their usual business rates.

Matthew Chapman

This generates around £500,000, which the BID spends on projects to improve the town and increase the number of visitors.

Mr Kent, a former director of the Harrogate Convention Centre, was previously appointed interim manager in April 2020.

Harrogate BID chair Sara Ferguson said:

“Whilst we continue the process of seeking a new BID manager, we have appointed Simon Kent in an interim role.

“Simon was instrumental in helping to launch Harrogate BID back in 2018, and in April 2020 we asked him to take on the role of interim manager, which he did until May the following year.

“Simon’s experience and knowledge of Harrogate BID are second to none, and I’m delighted that he has agreed to come back in a part-time-basis until a successor to outgoing BID manager, Matthew Chapman, is found.

“I look forward to rekindling my working relationship with Simon, particularly as we head towards the festive season, which with the BID’s involvement will see Harrogate once again become ‘Destination Christmas’.”

Business Breakfast is sponsored by Harrogate law firm Truth Legal. 

Harrogate-based law firm McCormicks Solicitors has appointed a new practice manager and accounts manager to its team.

Sonia Jones has been promoted to practice manager to reflect her work in supporting all activities across the firm, including management, human resources and the running of day-to-day activities.

Senior partner Peter McCormick said:

“Sonia joined us in 2007 and has become more and more involved in the management of the firm so it was a logical step to reward her for all her hard work with this promotion.”

Hayley Firth has been appointed accounts manager at McCormicks.

Ms Jones also assists with the practice’s charitable work. She became a trustee of the Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation in 2012, having previously supported the charity as secretary to the trustees, and continues to fulfil both duties.

Hayley Firth has been appointed accounts manager. She will work with accounts assistant Hollie Jackson to ensure the smooth running of the accounts department.

Read More:

• Business Breakfast: Raworths renews Harrogate Literature Festival sponsorship
• Business Breakfast: Swinton Estate partners with carbon measurement firm

Harrogate funeral directors hold webinar to help bereaved workers

Harrogate funeral directors, Full Circle, is to hold a webinar with Jo Tindall, and an employment partner at Gunnercooke, to support colleagues after a bereavement.

According to research carries out by Funeral Guide 77% of employees in the UK have experienced a bereavement during their working lives. 54% of bereaved employees would have preferred more time off work or a phased return to the workplace after taking time off.

Ms Tindall will explain the obligations on employers in supporting employees suffering a bereavement and will share the benefits of going beyond those obligations and becoming an employer of choice.

The event entitled Supporting employees after bereavement will be held on November 17.  For information on the webinar click here.

A Ripon IT company has announced it has bought Skipton-based Verus Solutions.

Fresh Mango Technologies, which is based on Barker Business Park, acquired the company, which specialises in IT support, computer systems and server supply and installation.

Officials at Fresh Mango said the purchase was an ideal fit due to Verus’ location and customer base.

Guy Phoenix, managing director at Fresh Mango, said:

“Their offering and ethos is almost identical to ours with a customer reach beyond Yorkshire’s borders. 

“The Fresh Mango mission is to bring much-needed first-class IT support to even more SMEs. Verus Solutions will help us to continue to fulfil that mission and we’re delighted that they’re now part of the Fresh Mango family.” 

Paul Roach, director of Verus Solutions, said: 

“Due to our close and long-standing relationships with our clients it was crucial for us to find an organisation that shared the same values as us, while at the same time having sufficient scale to provide the highest levels of customer service. 

“Fresh Mango demonstrated this throughout our discussions with them.”

Harrogate estate agents comes top at industry awards

A Harrogate estate agents picked up four awards at an industry awards ceremony.

Myrings Estate Agents came top in three categories and won silver in a fourth at the Estate Agent of the Year Awards.

The firm won Regional Sales Award for North Yorkshire, Lettings Agent Landlords Award, Estate Agents Sales Award and silver for Lettings Agent Tenants Award.

A post on the company’s social media said:

“We are truly grateful and our sincere thanks go out to all our wonderful customers for your reviews and support. We would not be where we are without you, combined with our amazing team that made this happen.

“It is all thanks to their hard work, positivity, and outstanding customer service we are where we are.”

Read more:

• Harrogate district business groups cautiously welcome mini-budget
• Harrogate district businesses ask police for help tackling anti-social behaviour

A landmark restaurant on a major road near Harrogate will reopen under new ownership this autumn.

The former Millstones restaurant on the A59 near Kettlesing has been bought by Mark and Teresa Trickett, who have already begun work on the site.

As well as renovating the accommodation to create a family home, they are transforming the restaurant into a large cafe, with new kitchen, toilets and more.

It will be known as the Outside Inn, but the site will continue to be known as Millstones in recognition of its history.

Mark said:

“It’s a behemoth of a coffee shop. Most days we’ve been working until two in the morning for the last six weeks.

“What we’re doing to it reflects our personality: it’s not on trend, it’s just us – an eclectic mix that we like.

“I’m hoping when we open the doors people will say they like it and they will come back for another cup of tea.”

The couple have run a motorhome business for the last few years. However, they were looking for a new site after struggling to get the right permissions to operate the business from their home, just half a mile from Millstones.

Mark approached the former owner of Millstones, which was on the market, and the sale completed in July. The couple got straight to work with their plans for the site.

Aiming to be as sustainable as possible, they are re-using as many of the fittings as possible, such as repurposing skirting boards to create a counter in the ladies’ toilets.

Read more:

• Cafe-bar and record store plans submitted for Cold Bath Road shop
• Harrogate town centre restaurant not expected to reopen

Millstones was well-known over many years for catering for large groups, from local organisations to coach trips passing by on the A59.

More recently, it had begun offering fish and chips, and had added a farm shop. However, Mark and Teresa plan to simplify what the venue offers and ensure it is good value, with Teresa drawing on her previous experience in the catering industry.

The couple said they hope to open the doors in the next few weeks. They have a clear vision of what they want the business to offer, as Mark explained:

“We’ll have a bit of retail but not a farm shop with veg and a butcher. If you’re trying to integrate into a community, you don’t want to tread on toes, and there are three or four farm shops around here already.

“The one thing Millstones did excel at was the Sunday carvery. We’re trying to reignite that for this side of Harrogate.

“We’re very nervous, because of the way things are going with the economy, but we’re excited because we feel we’ve got something where people would genuinely want to come.

“It’s my wife’s baby. She wanted somewhere that people could come and have value. If people can come here and have tea and cake for £5, £6, £7, and it’s good, they can walk out of here thinking, ‘that wasn’t half bad’.”

Business Breakfast is sponsored by Harrogate law firm Truth Legal. 

More than 1,000 people attended a business conference in Harrogate yesterday.

Brand Yorkshire held its 12th annual business conference at Pavilions of Harrogate at the Great Yorkshire Showground. Nearly 60 businesses had stalls at the event.

Staff from companies all over the country networked at the event, which attracted many local firms.

Georgina Pogge-von Strandmann, solicitor and branch manager at Ison Harrison in Harrogate, told the Stray Ferret:

“The event has been great to attend. We’re here to explain all of the services we can offer at our new Harrogate branch as a full-service law firm. We’ve spoken to a lot of people, everyone is really friendly.”

Sally Bendtson, who owns Limelight HR, said:

“It’s been really good so far, there is a nice mixture of people we know and people we haven’t worked with yet. Last year we just had a stand but this year we’ve got a stand and I’m doing a talk.”

Brand Yorkshire has been holding business events for more than a decade. They are run by Richard and Mona Norman.

Ms Norman told the Stray Ferret:

“People are still wanting to meet people face to face, especially in Harrogate. We have more than a thousand booked to attend.

“What is music to my ears is when the stand holders come to me, even when the day hasn’t finished yet, to say they are already getting business from the event.”

Boroughbridge chamber holds networking event

The Crown Hotel

Boroughbridge Chamber of Trade is to stage business networking event on Tuesday next week.

The event will also feature a presentation from Kevin Charity, the new chief executive of The Coaching Inn Group, which recently bought the town’s Crown Hotel.

Coaching Inns took over the historic 37-bedroom hotel in February after its parent company, RedCat Pub Company, purchased the building from Best Western for an undisclosed fee. It is investing about £450,000 in refurbishing the site.

The event takes place at the Crown Hotel from 5.30pm to 7pm. Non-chamber members are welcome.

Knaresborough businesses are gearing up for Halloween with a spooky-themed scarecrow trail and window decoration competition.

Scary displays are already starting to appear in shop windows in the historic market town, including Sid Horner and Son and Claro Hairstyles.

The competition, organised by the Knaresborough Business Collective, is being run alongside the Halloween scarecrow trail, which starts on October 21.

Natalie Horner, from Sid Horner and Son, who launched the not-for-profit business group with Annie Wilkinson-Gill, from The Crystal Buddha, said:

“We are running the competition following the huge success of our spring and jubilee window competitions.

“It is aimed at making the town look amazing for our exciting scarecrow trail. The trail will feature 28 scarecrows around Knaresborough, which people can find on a map.

“They are all sponsored and made by businesses and they will all be themed based on what would suit their business. For example, we have a hairdresser doing an Edward Scissorhands scarecrow.”

The entrance to Sid Horner and Son, which has an impressive spooky Halloween window display.

Ms Horner and her team have been working on a Halloween window at Sid Horner and Son for the last few weeks and is inviting people to have a look.

She said:

“We are a bit tucked away on Finkle Keep. It is made from old printer parts and has lots of little surprises.”

Read more:

• Greggs to open shop in Knaresborough
• Business is booming in Knaresborough as empty shop units continue to fill

This story is sponsored by Truth Legal.

A Harrogate law firm is celebrating supporting those most in need of legal advice for 10 years.

Truth Legal, which is based on Victoria Avenue, was founded by Andrew Gray back in 2012.

It was set up to help provide access to justice for those who may find the law difficult to navigate and has prided itself on having a “honest and ethical” ethos.

Since then, Truth Legal has gone onto support people for personal injury, clinical negligence, employment, small businesses and immigration cases and even expanded its client base into Leeds with a new office.

Georgina Parkin, the Managing Director at the firm, said the purpose of the company continues to be helping those people who find the law hard to access. She said:

She said:

“Truth Legal was set up in 2012 with the ethos of providing ethical and affordable access to justice. Access to justice has been reduced over the last 12 years with reductions in legal aid and increased court fees.”

“There has been a lot of changes to various areas of the law over the years, such as legal aid and employment tribunals.”

Georgina, who started out as a trainee back in 2013 before rapidly rising to director, is set to oversee the next milestone in the company’s history.

Truth Legal at their 10 year anniversary celebration.

Along with Louis MacWilliam and Navya Shekhar, Georgina will take on majority control of the firm. Catherine Reynolds will continue in her role as a Director of the firm. Andrew will continue to provide support as a consultant.

Going forward, Truth Legal wants to undertake another ambitious recruitment drive and look at setting up another office.

It also intends to take on more social justice cases and expanding its immigration, employment and clinical negligence teams.

For Georgina, the mission of the firm will remain the same – providing access to justice for those who need it most.

For more information on Truth Legal and how to get in touch for legal advice, visit their website here or call 01423 788358.

Harrogate Borough Council has received almost £500,000 from Harrogate Spring Water since 2017 as a share of the company’s annual turnover, new figures reveal.

The council owns the land where the company is based on Harlow Moor Road and receives £13,000 a year in ground rent.

Harrogate Spring Water also has to pay a percentage of annual turnover to the council. This is known as turnover rent.

The turnover rent agreement was drawn up in the early 2000s when the council granted planning permission to build a bottling plant on land leased to the company.

However, the figure has never been made public.

Two-year battle

For almost two years, the Stray Ferret has tried to find out exactly how much the council benefits from the success of the Danone-owned company.

We first asked the question to HBC in a freedom of information request in January 2021, almost two years ago.

But the council refused to tell us. It said:

“This information is deemed to be of commercial value and, if disclosed, may impact on the council’s ability to negotiate and harm its legitimate interests, putting it in a commercially disadvantageous situation.”

We then requested that HBC undertake an internal review of this decision.

However, Joanne Barclay, acting chief solicitor at HBC, came to the same conclusion, adding “confidence may be eroded if commercial rents were to be disclosed”.

In summer 2021, we submitted a complaint about the council’s decision not to disclose the sum to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

ICO is an independent government body that promotes openness within public bodies.

After a long delay due to a backlog, it investigated HBC’s refusal and asked the council to look again at the Stray Ferret’s question. It has now decided to publish the figures for the last five years.

Read more:

• Harrogate Spring Water reports £23m turnover but still makes a loss

• Campaigner accuses Harrogate Spring Water of ‘greenwashing’ over expansion plans

Finally publishing the figures

Earlier this year, the BBC’s Local Democracy Service revealed that HBC receives 0.5% of the company’s annual turnover.

It estimated the council received £853,033 over an 18-year period, however, new information suggests that is likely to be a higher figure.

Since 2017, HBC has received £495,000.

Company accounts published on Friday revealed turnover has returned to pre-covid levels after dipping significantly due to the pandemic.

Each year, the council has received the following sum from Harrogate Spring Water in turnover rent:

2017  – £92,811.87

2018  – £138,026.18

2019  – £91,153.15

2020  – £152,332.02

2021  – £21,995.79

Global brand

Harrogate Borough Council and Harrogate Spring Water’s histories are intertwined.

Water has been bottled in Harrogate for centuries but in the early 1990s Harrogate Spa Water, as the company was previously known, was selling just 1,000 bottles of water a year.

The company’s fortunes changed in the late 1990s when HBC, run then by the Liberal Democrats, identified an opportunity to explore water resources at the current site on Harlow Moor Road.

Harrogate Spring Water has since gone from strength to strength to become a global brand.

The relationship between the two organisations has come into focus due to Harrogate Spring Water’s attempts to expand its bottling plant into Rotary Wood.

The council has always maintained that its status as planning authority and Harrogate Spring Water’s landlord are separate.

A Harrogate Borough Council spokesperson said:

“We have had a base rent and turnover rent agreement in place with Harrogate Spring Water Ltd since 2002.

“As with all of our rental agreements, the money generated is used to help deliver valuable front-line services across the Harrogate district.”

Harrogate Spring Water saw sales return to almost pre-pandemic levels last year but still made a loss.

The company, which is owned by French multinational Danone, last week published its latest annual financial report covering the period from December 2020 to December 2021.

During this period, the company reported a turnover of £23m and a gross profit of £6.9m.

However, despite the improved sales figures for 2021, the company still made a loss of £1.3m after costs, expenses and tax.

Bouncing back

The healthy sales figures reflect how the bottled drinking water firm bounced back after its previous report, which covered March 2020 until December 2020, and saw revenue fall sharply.

The decline in 2020 was mainly due to hotels and restaurants that serve its water being closed due to covid.

Turnover in 2021 returned close to its pre-covid figures for 2019/20, when it recorded a turnover of £26.2m in the 12-month period ending March 31 2020.

Harrogate Spring Water declined to make a comment on the accounts.

Read more:

• Harrogate Spring Water investigating new water sources on council land
• Harrogate Spring Water ‘finalising’ latest expansion plans

The Pinewoods expansion

Meanwhile, Harrogate Spring Water is preparing to submit a new planning application to expand its bottling plant in the Pinewoods.

The company was granted outline planning permission to expand to the west of its existing site in 2016, which meant the principle of development had been established but the details had not been agreed.

The reserved matters application provoked a major backlash due to the loss of trees at Rotary Wood. In January 2021, councillors on the planning committee voted overwhelmingly to reject it— against the wishes of council officers who had recommended approval.

The firm held a consultation on plans for its Rotary Wood site this summer and said it would now provide a further update “in the coming weeks”.