First I'll mention the trio of awards that we're very proud to have been given.
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| Wendy & Jason with the certificates |
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| Jason & Wendy hit the papers |
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| "Local & Loved" |
The team at +Gooch Accident work hard to help & advise customers from the initial estimate right the way through the repair process until the hand over back to the customer and it's certainly paid off with the presentation of three awards: Most Loved Business In Lowestoft, Top 100 UK Business & Highly Commended Business In Category Of Car Repairs & Servicing.
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| Tones Hair Design Showing Their Award Certificate |
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| Holly Garden Nurseries Scooping Their 2 Award Certificates Tones Hair Design Holly Garden Nurseries |
The awards were presented after the +bestoflowestoft headed up the local part of a national campaign to find the most loved business in Lowestoft. During the campaign the local people of Lowestoft entered hundreds of reviews showing their support for their favourite local business. Second place went to Tones Hair Design and third went to Holly Garden Nurseries showing that the support of buying local is incredibly important to a thriving community.
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| Claire Manwani |
The owner of Claire Manwani Pottery has expanded out into business in Gorleston High Street at the new shop A Touch Of Craft. The shop is full of exciting products of various crafts and if you've always wanted to learn a craft then you''ll be able to take advantage of their new teaching studio due to open soon.
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| The New Shop In Gorleston High Street |
Claire can be seen at the Gorleston shop behind her potters wheel displaying the techniques used to make her fabulous wares.
Claire Manwani Pottery
A Touch Of Craft
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| Cafe Grand On London Road South, Kirkley |
+Louise Carsen from The Amazing Company was one of the local business women at the first Lowestoft Business "Tweet-Up" held at the Cafe Grand in Kirkley. The Tweet-Up was attended by many of the businesses from the famous Twitter #LowestoftHour. It was fantastic to see so many like minded business people sharing ideas for the future and working together on new projects. The idea of a Teddy Bears Picnic was rumoured as The Gift Shop in Oulton Broad announced the expectant arrival of their Norfolk Bears, Wine Tasting at Ferini Art Gallery in Pakefield was whispered about & a Fire Station Charity Car Wash for The Fire Fighters Charity added to the local things on offer for the people of Lowestoft & Waveney.
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| A Hive Of Activity Inside The Cafe Grand |
Gooch Accident Repair Centre customers are offered a free cuppa when they visit the
Cafe Grand*
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| Pro Driver Training Offering Trailer Tuition In A Safe Environment |
Jason had an interesting meeting with Charles & Lesley from Pro-Driver Training in the middle of February. The brother & sister partnership certainly seem to be leading the way in business for inspiring everyone who has a passion to get behind the wheel of a vehicle to do so with the support and confidence of the busy, passionate duo. Offering a safe, supported driving experience both on the road and at their off road facility there's no reason in their appointment book why age or ability would stop them teaching anyone.
As you know bears like their food and this bear is no exception! I've had three breakfast meetings this month, one at the Rookery Park one at the newly improved Ivy House Country Hotel and one at the NWES Riverside Business Centre all three meetings had interesting, informative topics and the lesson of listening & learning from others was definitely learnt.
I had an invitation from Emma Ratzer (CEO of access community trust) to do a presentation to some of the 90 staff that work for the trust about the Gooch Charity Donation Scheme. The presentation took place in one of the top conference rooms at the Orbis Energy Centre where the room was filled with puzzled faces as a blue bear presented them with a free keyfob & glovebox pack for their cars. The presentation went into detail how the trust benefit from the donation scheme whenever the staff have work carried out by +Gooch Accident Many were surprised to learn that Gooch paint kitchen cupboard doors, radiators, garden furniture and much more than just cars, motorcycles & boats.
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| Emma Ratzer Along With Some Of The Fantastic Staff |
access community trust offers a tremendous amount of support to all sections of our community. The older generation are offered a sheltered housing scheme, the young are offered education & work experience, anyone suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or mental health issues are offered access to healthcare professionals and there's always a new learning course available if you want to try your hand at something new. Please click the link to find out more about what this organisation has achieved in previous years since 1975 and what it aims to provide the community for the future.
So what's on the calendar for the month ahead? Well, I can tell you, that you'll find me regularly on the Thursday #LowestoftHour on twitter from 7pm until 8pm where every business is welcome to pop on and promote their business free of charge & even better if you can hang around to chat to some of the other businesses.
I have a coffee & chat meeting with +Sarah Butcher arranged where I'll be telling her some of the hush hush items on Bears agenda for the rest of the year which she'll probably end up blogging about (so keep a google+ on her :-) )
I'm due to visit Tides Reach Tearoom, enjoy another breakfast at Ivy House, drop in on the members of the Kirkley Business Association, arrange a date with Lowestoft Responders, take a look at the Ferini Gallery and in between all of that keep the friends on facebook and the followers on twitter up to date with the latest news and events from the Gooch Accident HQ. Phew it sounds like I might need a holiday after all of that lot! Oh and I nearly forgot, I have to arrange a meet up with some of the towns other animal celebrities from the Lowestoft pancake day race at sometime or another.
Oh and one last thing............................................................................................
Does anyone know anything about the rumour of a brand new shop on Belvedere Road?
I'm told it's going to be an advice centre for motorists, what have you heard?
