Shop Local Campaign: #LoveLiveLocal

The Council is urging residents and businesses to get behind their campaign to support local businesses in the county.  The #LoveLiveLocal campaign aims to get people to show their support for local businesses by using the hashtag on Twitter and Facebook to promote good experiences they’ve had and promote products and services locally that they have ‘loved’.  We also want Denbighshire businesses to engage with the campaign and use the hashtag to promote their goods and services to help spread the word about the diverse range of products and services that are available in local towns and villages.

Here are just a few pictures of residents and businesses embracing the #LoveLiveLocal campaign.

     

Customers Katrina and Eddie Foozies                      Mr & Mrs Dyson at Chatwins, Llangollen

 

     

Elevate your sole - Prestatyn                                    Jacob's Ladder - St Asaph

 

     

Leonardos - Ruthin                                                    Rejuve - Rhuddlan

 

Llangollen business trio champion #LoveLiveLocal online campaign

A trio of thriving Llangollen businesses are helping to spearhead a new drive to persuade people to support local businesses.

Stan's Supermarket, the Pro Adventure outdoor shop and Lilly Rose Interiors have all just joined the small and growing band of official ambassadors for the #LoveLiveLocal social media campaign.

The campaign is being supported by the Council to promote independent local shops, small companies and service providers and help them make the most of social media marketing.

The big idea behind the campaign is that if a customer loves the product they have just bought at their local gift shop or is delighted with the restaurant meal they had, they can spread the word over Twitter or Facebook, simply adding #LoveLiveLocal, to help their business friends and neighbours.

Denbighshire Council Leader Hugh Evans OBE has invited businesses across the county to engage with the campaign, use the hashtag to promote themselves and ask their customers to use it too.

He said: “There are so many fantastic businesses here in Denbighshire in all sorts of sectors from food and hotels, to shops selling uniquely made crafts and providers of first class services and unforgettable experiences.

“We need to get the word out and make sure as many people as possible get to know about them and use them.

“We call on the people of Denbighshire to show community spirit by supporting this bid to safeguard the future of our high streets.

"Small businesses help create a thriving regional economy and provide vital jobs for local people.

"That’s why we really want people to share their positive experiences and boost our #LoveLiveLocal campaign by passing on the message about how much they love shopping locally.

"It's part of our ongoing drive to develop and expand the local economy, promote shopping locally and encourage businesses to further explore the benefits of using social media."

Among those throwing their weight behind the campaign is Stan's Supermarket on Berwyn Street where manager Steve Jones said: “I’ll be doing whatever I can to support it as an ambassador.

“At Stan's in Llangollen we’re very much in favour of supporting other businesses from the area and we stock items from 15 or 16 local suppliers alongside the main brands.

“We also support local causes and in the four years since we opened in Llangollen we’ve donated about £2,500 to schools, football teams and the area’s Tidy Town team.

“I think #LoveLiveLocal is useful as social media is such a valuable marketing tool and getting feedback about local businesses from the people who use them is very important.”

Another new #LoveLiveLocal ambassador in Llangollen is one of the town’s youngest businesses, Lilly Rose Interiors, which opened in Castle Street just four months ago.

It’s run by Jan Deeprose, who lives in the area and used her considerable background in retailing as a springboard to start her own shop selling a wide range of home and house wear, from candles and cushions to crockery and garden ornaments.

She said: “I’m pleased to become as ambassador for #LoveLiveLocal as I know that social media is so vital for businesses these days. That’s why I’m on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

“It’s also so important to be doing something to support smaller local businesses, which is what the county council is doing with this campaign.

“Being local is vital these days. I live and work in Llangollen, so I pride myself on knowing my local market and what people want and being able to pass the word about what businesses have to offer through this campaign all helps.”

Pete Carol, who has been running his Pro Adventure business in Llangollen since 1991 and now trades from the former Post Office in Castle Street.

He said: “I’m pleased to be involved as I regularly use social media to help market my business, which is a specialist retailer for people who love the outdoors.

“It’s not just about clothing and we stock items for walking, camping and bushcraft, such as such as axes and knives.

“Through our presence on social media we pick up on local shares and retweets, which is good for business.

“The #LoveLiveLocal campaign is an extension of that and I’m very pleased to be involved in it as it will certainly help to tell people about what’s good about using businesses in Llangollen and Denbighshire.”               

Redundancy paves the way to success for husband and wife entrepreneurs

A husband and wife are building a new future for themselves after overcoming the heartbreak of redundancy by launching a stonemasonry business.

Julie and Dylan Williams, co-owners of Stoneworkz Industries, have secured a series of lucrative contracts across the UK since the Council awarded them a business development grant to cover the cost of specialised machinery to meet increasing demand.

The £5,000 grant, which funded a specialised saw for cutting stone and a bespoke water tank, enabled the Denbigh-based firm to improve its efficiency and fulfil bigger orders and has been instrumental to their growth.

The business now employs three full-time staff, has plans to recruit another and is preparing to launch its first showroom on the Spencer Trading Estate in the autumn.

“It’s going very well. It’s been hard and we’ve both had to work very long hours but we’re so pleased with the way the business is being built so far and we’re hoping to grow further,” said Julie, who lives in Denbigh.

“At the beginning, when we launched, we wouldn’t have thought we would have a showroom and a workshop within a year so we’re really pleased. We’re going in the direction we’d planned to.

“The grant was a huge help to us. Financially, we just didn’t have the back-up. We’ve both taken a big drop in income to be able to start the business and build it which has been our personal financial contribution.

“We’re trying not to take much money out of the business to be able to move forward. The grant has helped us grow according to our demand.”

Julie, 48, has been working in the industry 11 years while her husband Dylan, 39, has more than 16 years’ experience.

The couple, who have three children aged 10, 20, 27, were working for the same local stone supplier when Julie was made redundant from her management position. Although she took on a temporary role at another firm, the couple wanted to apply their vast experience and knowledge by building their own firm.

“The decision to set up a business was mine initially. Being made redundant was the key thing and the driving force behind the decision,” said Julie.

“We were both in management positions and we realised we both had put in so much effort for someone else – we’d really given it 100 per cent - and we didn’t want to do that again and still have no control over our jobs being taken away from us.

“It was scary but we had more control over the decisions that were being made. One of our key advantages as a business is the amount of time we are both willing to invest in our customers to find them the materials that they really want. We will go out of our way to find the best price or style options to fit perfectly into a project.”

The business launched in June 2015 and it quickly became apparent that further investment was needed to acquire stone and brick cutting machinery so that they could fulfil orders in-house.

They applied for a business grant from Denbighshire County Council at the start of this year and were delighted when it was accepted.

“It was an expensive type of business to start and we didn’t have anything behind us except for an initial start-up loan,” said Julie.

“We needed to get more machinery and the grant was specifically for that.

“It enabled us to take a step forward to do the work our clients were asking for and grow our business. As a result, we’re now working with a Warrington-based company that delivers hotel refurbishments internationally and have fulfilled orders in Guernsey and Jersey. We’re also working with a high-end kitchen supplier, undertaking work in the Devon area.

“Our work is nationwide and our name is getting out there but there’s more work to do. We’ve not pushed too hard as we need to get our staff fully trained up but it already seems to be working. We’re looking forward to the future.”

Kirsty Davies, Business Support and Networking Officer for Denbighshire County Council, said its grant scheme had helped many local firms grow at a faster rate than they might otherwise have done without financial support.

“Small businesses face so many hurdles in the early days, particularly in relation to equipment and premises – both of which require considerable investment.

“Our grant scheme helps to alleviate some of these and allow businesses to grow confidently, boosting the economy and creating new jobs.

“It’s very rewarding to see this investment transpire into lucrative business contracts and achieve everything it is designed to do.”

To find out how to apply for a Business Development Grant go to our website or call 01824 706896.

Red-hot jam firm celebrates the fruits of its labours with stockist milestone

A pair of entrepreneurs who put on face masks and protective clothing to make their fiery chilli jam are celebrating a major milestone - netting their 150th stockist.

Dominic Haynes and Llyr Jones, who launched the Dangerous Food Company less than three years ago when they were both made redundant from an Irish dairy, are now supplying their unique brand of chilli jams to restaurants, farm shops and delicatessens across the UK – and even as far away as Alphen in Holland.

They say an £2,300 grant from the Council has fuelled their rapid growth, including recent expansion into the luxury goats’ cheese market, and helped them to meet customer demand more readily through the purchase of a walk-in fridge.

And as the St Asaph-based enterprise prepares to unveil a new, top-secret product ahead of the Hamper Llangollen food festival on October 19 and 20, the duo are have signed up their 150^th outlet – the soon-to-be opened Frankie’s Farm Shop in Dyserth.

“We are finally at the stage where we know it’s working,” said Dominic, 33, who lives in St Asaph.

“We’ve done it all debt-free and it’s just grown and grown. There have been some initial dark days, like every business, but now everything is falling into place. It’s now all about expansion and doing things quicker.

“In order for a business to grow you have to outlay money but if half the cost can be taken away it means you feel more confident and safer about expanding and you can grow more quickly and make the business more successful.

“Already, with just the two of us on the ground, we’ve acquired a small part of the food market and we want to spread our products further and further afield.

“We have customers in London and the Scottish borders but there are more than 2,000 farm shops and delis nationally so the next step is to push these. Our aim is to reach as many as possible.”

The duo, who’ve been friends for 11 years, started making fiery chilli chutneys suitable for meat, cheese and barbecues in January 2013, combining hot chillies with traditional British fruits to enhance the flavour.

Dominic, who graduated from Nottingham University with a degree in product design, was renowned for his culinary skills among friends and family and created no fewer than 38 versions of what is now the firm’s original product, Red Chilli and Lime Jam, in his home kitchen before deciding on his final ‘wow factor’ recipe.

“I’ve always been pretty good in the kitchen. Everybody knew me for cooking really spicy food at uni and used to complain about the smell,” he said.

In the early days, the friends decided to sell some of the jam at a weekend food event and were stunned when all 600 jars flew off the stall. The very next day, the pair found out they were being made redundant from their sales jobs which gave them the incentive to sell the jams full-time.

By May 2014, the businessmen had developed three jam products; their original Red Chilli and Lime Jam, Habanero Chilli with Sun-ripened Mango Jam, which scooped two stars in the Great Taste Awards in 2015, and Jalapeno Chilli and Apple Jam, and had moved production out of Dominic’s modest home kitchen to premises at Patchwork Pate in Ruthin.

More flavours followed including the fiery Ghost Chilli Jam containing one of the world’s hottest chillies and requiring protective eye gear during production.

In August last year, they branched out and sourced a luxurious goats’ cheese product from Holland to offer under their brand which has been well-received in the gourmet food market – and has led to a coveted stockist contract across the Channel for their jams.  And thanks to a business grant provided by Denbighshire County Council at the start of 2016, they were able to purchase a purpose-built outdoor storage facility which enabled them to quadruple their order capacity and expand.

“We’d taken on some big wholesalers and the fridge meant we were able to store the products with ease,” said Dominic, who attended Blessed Edward Jones Catholic High School in Rhyl while growing up.  The grant made our growth manageable and easier. For any business like ours, January and February is quiet and to outlay that kind of money ourselves would have carried much more risk.  We are still working 50 or 60 hours a week. Llyr and his partner recently had their first child, Molly, eight weeks ago. The amount of work we need to do made any paternity leave tricky but we were able to work these hours when we wanted to so there’s a degree of flexibility.”

Kirsty Davies, Business Support and Networking Officer for Denbighshire County Council, said: “It’s incredibly rewarding to watch local businesses succeed, especially so soon after launching.

"Our business grant scheme is designed to encourage new businesses to take those first steps towards expansion and ultimately create new jobs and support development of the local economy, which is a council priority.

“Many small businesses face hurdles on the path to growth including a lack of resources or facilities and this project helps to mitigate some of these, allowing innovation and talent to flourish uninhibited."

To find out how to apply for a Business Development Grant go to our website.