The Wensleydale Creamery, based at Hawes in Wensleydale, in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, is investing in its e-commerce operation to optimise its business for increased direct-to-consumer demand. The new e-commerce operation will see the brand launch a new website with plans to expand the operations team to facilitate the projected increased demand from UK consumers. The new website, which showcases the Creamery’s rich cheesemaking heritage and provenance, aims to enhance and streamline the customer experience of buying online, direct from the artisan cheesemaker. The investment follows recent increased online sales, which accelerated during the pandemic. Capitalising on the online food-buying trend, the Creamery is perfectly positioned to deliver direct to the increased number of consumers searching online for authentic food and all year-round gifting options. The Creamery already sells directly to many loyal fans through its Online Deli, with freshly cut handcrafted cheese and a range of locally sourced artisan accompaniments, deli boxes and luxury hampers and gifts. The business has generated a 145% sales increase vs pre-pandemic levels and has further ambitious targets for the forthcoming year. Sandra Bell, Marketing Manager at the Wensleydale Creamery, commented: “We’d identified the direct-to-consumer route as an opportunity for our business, and with the notable rise in online food sales activity over the past two years, we’ve been able to test our model to support our investment and growth plans. We’re now in a great position to expand our e-commerce offering and services and provide an enhanced online consumer experience to cater to the increasing customer demand. “Our new website will make the shopping experience even smoother, allowing us to showcase our handcrafted cheese and artisan produce, and develop new ranges, not only for key calendar occasions but also all-year-round gifting for cheese lovers across the UK.” To find out more, please visit: https://www.wensleydale.co.uk/.

Entries close tonight at midnight for a chance to win a free office design as part of the 25^th anniversary celebrations for Lincolnshire commercial office design and refurbishment company APSS. As businesses across the UK have been forced to adapt to a post-COVID working life, many companies have been forever changed. “The way offices are used has changed, and businesses need to ensure they reflect the new way of working,” explained Stuart Marsland, sales director for APSS. “When an office is designed to specifically meet the needs of the business, there is a significant increase in staff morale, as well as productivity. You will find the business flows better and becomes more efficient. “In addition to celebrating our 25^th anniversary, we want to help those businesses who may not have considered bringing in a professional company to redesign their office before. If we can help them to better understand the flow of how their business could work going forward, it will make a huge difference to that company.” Established in Lincoln in 1997, APSS has evolved from a partitions and storage solution company to providing clients with a full design and fit out service. APSS specialises in creating offices which showcase a company’s brand, personality and help boost staff morale, productivity, and efficiency using inspirational designs and natural light. Entries close at midnight on February 7^th, 2022. To enter, submit an online form and answer four questions about what both the company and its staff want included in their office environment. The winner will be chosen by a panel of judges and will receive computer-generated images and a video walkthrough of the design to show what potential the office has. In the last 25 years APSS has completed over 10,000 orders for customers across the country. The company’s first-ever customer was Siemens. Since then, it has designed and refurbished offices and retail spaces for Wren Kitchens, Slimming World, Octopus Energy, Loughborough University, University of Sheffield and Bakkavor to name just a few. For all terms and conditions of the competition, please visit the APSS website.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is urging the Government to look again at its planned hikes to National Insurance Contributions (NICs) to facilitate more workplace opportunities for young people as part of levelling up efforts. The recommendation comes as this year’s Apprenticeship Week begins today in England. Last week, the Government established an aim of having “200,000 more people successfully completing high-quality skills training annually, driven by 80,000 more people completing courses in the lowest skilled areas,” as part of its Levelling Up white paper. FSB’s latest Small Business Index shows the proportion of small firms citing lack of access to appropriately skilled staff as a barrier to growth has risen ten percentage points to 33% over the past year. Though exemptions do exist for apprenticeships, FSB estimates that employers are paying NICs for most apprentices across the UK. Apprenticeship starts have dropped from just under 500,000 a year in 2016/17, before the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy, to under 325,000 in 2020/21. To address these trends, FSB is urging policymakers to:

• Remove all employer NICs costs for apprentices to spur role creation.
• Cancel planned increases to NICs across the board and dividend taxation to free up funds for recruitment and training among entrepreneurs.
• Reintroduce the £3,000 incentive to hire an apprentice that ran until January of this year, targeting the funding at small businesses.

FSBs policy representative Clare Elsby said: “Apprenticeship Week is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the importance of on-the-job education and the massive benefits it brings to employee and employer alike. Our apprentices are our future business leaders and innovators, and that’s why we should be doing all we can to create more of them. “By looking again at its approach to NICs, the Government can make a real difference here – directly, by bringing down the immediate costs of taking an apprentice on, and indirectly, by freeing up more funds for recruitment and training at a moment when cash reserves are depleted. “Small businesses disproportionately hire young people and those from disadvantaged groups when they create apprenticeships, so a targeted reintroduction of the hiring incentive that existed over lockdowns makes sense in the context of the levelling up agenda.”

UK tech start-ups and high growth businesses can now benefit from a specialist emerging companies service launched by Gordons. The firm, which has been sole legal partner to digital and tech start up investment network NorthInvest for more than three years, provides emerging companies and investors with advice ranging from initial set-up, to fundraising and exit. Gordons’ start-ups and emerging companies clients include marketing technology platform ContentCal, which entered into an agreement to be acquired by Adobe Inc. in December 2021. The firm has advised ContentCal for a number of years including helping the business secure Series A investment from Fuel Ventures and Guinness Asset Management last March. Other Gordons start-ups and emerging companies’ clients include film production company HTYT, construction web application company C-Link and many private and corporate investors. Gordons’ head of start-ups and emerging companies is solicitor Amy Pierechod who also leads the firm’s relationship with NorthInvest. She leads a multi-disciplinary team from Gordons advising owners of tech start-ups and high growth businesses as well as investors. “Through our work with NorthInvest we have built up a great network of founder and investor clients and we recognise that they need fast, to the point advice that focuses on what is important to them,” Amy said. “The launch of our nationwide start-ups and emerging companies service is to show we recognise the particular challenges faced by companies in these early stages and want to work with those businesses to help them grow.” Gordons’ start-ups and emerging companies team has advised on all aspects of business operations including Series A fundraises, licensing and exploiting ideas and technology, commercial contracts and incentivising employees. Amy added: “Our aim is to be a first choice law firm for start-ups and emerging companies to enable entrepreneurs to realise their growth potential as quickly and effectively as possible.”

Anglian Water outlines largest ever year of investment focusing on climate resilience, environmental protection and driving down leakage Including £28million of support for customers as cost of living increases Anglian Water has today unveiled a huge £680million investment programme for the year ahead. The largest investment ever planned for a single year will be spent across the entire East of England, which is the driest and one of the fastest-growing parts of the country. The funds will be ploughed into areas of work specifically aimed at preparing the region to meet the urgent challenges of climate change and population growth, as well as protecting the environment. The water company will also continue to offer a wide range of support for customers to help them plan and manage their water bills, as the cost of living increases that have swept the UK over the last 12 months are set to continue. Average water bills for the coming year are expected to be £454 for the year, or just £1.24 per day – an increase of just 6p per day on last year’s charges. This 5% rise compares to a forecasted average energy bill price hike of around 40%. Having a water meter remains the best way of keeping bills affordable as customers only pay for what they use. Anglian Water’s Director of Customer and Wholesale, Pete Holland said: “We know this year is going to be tough for our customers, as the cost of living increases for us all. That’s why we’re committed to keeping water bills as low as possible while still preparing our region to meet the significant challenges of a rapidly changing climate, and growing population. “The average bill of £1.24 per day pays for all the water you need to wash your hands, to drink and to cook, and for every flush of the loo and cycle of the washing machine. But more than that, it helps us build and look after a water network that protects both the environment and our customers while looking ahead to future challenges too.” A £680million investment programme: fit for a changing region Operating in the driest region of the UK, Anglian Water has often highlighted the future challenges of water scarcity facing the East of England. The company’s largest ever five-year business plan, which began in 2020, outlined ground breaking schemes specifically designed to tackle this challenge, while protecting the region’s environment for the long term. The proposals were wholeheartedly endorsed by customers. This is the third year of that cycle and will see boots-on-the-ground as this work continues, including: ·       Environmental investment: £157million to protect and enhance the natural environment by removing chemicals such as phosphates and ammonia from used water, and working with organisations like The Rivers Trusts on river restoration projects to protect some of the region’s unique chalk stream habitats. This work forms part of Anglian’s £800million Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP), which is larger than that of any other water company. ·       Tackling CSOs: Within that programme of work, £52million will be spent on work tackling Combined Storm Overflows by increasing the network’s capacity to store excess rainwater, investigating and remedying the highest spilling CSOs and installing more monitors across the sewer network, so future investment can be targeted in the places where it can have the most benefit for the environment. ·       Securing future supplies: £124million continuing work on the region’s biggest water infrastructure project for a generation, creating hundreds of kilometres of new interconnecting pipelines and associated infrastructure to move water around the region wherever and whenever needed.  This is part of an ambitious new investment in resilience to keep taps running and minimise the impacts of future droughts, and reducing the amount of water taken directly from the environment. ·       Helping customers save water: £31million will be spent on the continuation of the company’s programme to roll out over 1 million upgraded water meters across the region, helping customers to understand their water usage and identifying leaks in customer’s homes to better meet demand for water in the future. ·       Reducing leakage: £11million on continuing to drive down leaks, retaining Anglian Water’s position as having the lowest level of leakage of any water company in the UK, by almost half. The company will also invest heavily in maintaining and improving customer service, providing top quality drinking water and protecting the region against severe weather such as drought and flooding. Continuing support for customers and communities Every year Anglian Water commits £1million to help vulnerable customers facing financial hardship. The year Anglian Water will  continue to extend financial support to over 300,000 households via its WaterCare Service. Alongside helping people who’ve needed financial support this year, the water company has also increased the number of customers signed up to its Priority Services Register, meaning over 250,000 of the most vulnerable customers will get additional help should they need it. The company’s priority service helps a wide range of people, from those with sight, hearing, or mobility difficulties, to parents with babies under 12 months old. The service also provides support to customers with long or short-term medical needs should there be any interruption to their water supply. Pete continued: “Offering the right support for our customers has never been more important. Over the next 12 months we’ll be helping over 300,000 people by putting together packages of support that are tailored to meet their individual needs. This might be through accessing affordable tariffs or payment holidays for those who may be struggling to pay, or could be as simple as direct debit payments to help spread the cost each month. “Whatever the circumstances, our message to customers is simple: if you’re struggling, please get in touch. The sooner we talk, the sooner we can help. And not only with your water bill, our Extra Care team can also signpost you to other support that you may be entitled to. “This is the biggest investment we’ve ever made in a 12-month period and it comes at an incredibly challenging time for everyone. Our customers can be reassured that we invest every pound in doing the right thing now and for the long term. We believe our responsibility is to them, their communities and to the environment we look after.”