Posts from the “Business” Category
05/11/2010 No comments

Symondsbury craft workshops “to add to Bridport’s national reputation”

WORK is due to start early next year on turning a Symondsbury “eyesore” into a tourist attraction.

Part of Manor Yard, Symondsbury

The Colfox family have dropped controversial plans to convert the historic Manor Yard into a wedding venue with six wedding / holiday homes and 100 car parking spaces.

Instead the 18th century stable block in Mill Lane is going to be converted into six modern craft workshops which it is hoped will attract visitors from across the country. The target date for completion is October 2011.

Julia Colfox is now Managing Director of Symondsbury Farms Ltd, and in control of developments, replacing an agent (Pineapple Rural of Salway Ash).

The Symondsbury Farms estate consists of about 1,500 acres, and although agriculture still accounts for the biggest proportion of its income, the Colfox family are keen to diversify.

There are also plans to revamp Crepe Farm (approved application; others have been withdrawn, eg shop and restaurant) and Axen Farm (shooting lodge and holiday accommodation).

A letter about Symondsbury’s Whole Farm Plan written in May 2010 by Pineapple’s Andrew Dyke revealed that annual income was projected to rise to £986,000 by 2013/14, compared to an estimated £723,000 for 2009/10. The letter also details environmental improvements.

Manor Yard

A statement issued by Symondsbury Farms Ltd has said “quite frankly” that Manor Yard is an “eyesore”.

About 90% of the roof is covered in sheeting.

The stable block has been covered in tarpaulins for seven years. West Dorset District Council served notice five years ago that urgent improvements were required – a notice was served under section 54 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act, 1990.

The craft workshops plan was approved in February 2009, as – planners said – “an excellent opportunity to breathe new life into a vulnerable collection of historically significant buildings”.

The scheme got put to one side when an application went in for a wedding venue – but that application was recently withdrawn. (It would have meant the loss of 13 full time jobs).

Skilled workers in rural crafts

Now – says the Symondsbury Farms statement – “The objective is to attract skilled workers in rural crafts and for the public to be able to come and see them at work.

“The Pottery run by Miles Bell and Wendy Lees’ Herb Nursery will remain on site with the former relocating to a new building.

“Bridport is already gaining a national reputation as a thriving historic market town with its artists’ community and annual literary festival to name but two of its assets.

“It is very much anticipated that the new complex will become an attraction and destination for those visiting Bridport and whilst adding to this reputation will, as importantly, be see by the inhabitants of Symondsbury as in keeping with its environment as well as being a real asset within their community.”

Manor Yard has been an important place of work in Symondsbury for 500 years.
26/10/2010 No comments

West Dorset: Let’s at least try to get superfast broadband!

HAVE YOU heard from “Race to Infinity”? Sounds a bit Toy Story but is it child’s play? If you think your broadband connection is slower than what you’re actually paying for, read on because if Beaminster and Bridport’s votes are anything to go by, West Dorset is not even in the race. Yet.

BT are conducting a survey for the establishment of their superfast fibre optic Broadband within the UK called Infinity Services. Have we got a chance in West Dorset to even get what some of us already pay for but are not getting: a fast connection?

Well… five areas of the UK (yes 5) with the largest percentage of votes by 31 December 2010 will win the chance to be the lucky BT’s Infinity race winners. ‘Chance to win’ never guarantees anything in my books but lack of trying certainly guarantees failure.

So, before you go and vote please tell all your friends, your colleagues, your neighbours, your parents and whatever you do please don’t forget your silver surfer friends. We do live in West Dorset after all. Only 8 people have voted for Beaminster out of 1,800, Bridport is marginally better with 38 votes out of 8,110 (on Monday 25 October 2010).

Our neighbours Weymouth will probably be on fast track mode thanks to the Olympics but let’s face it, Beaminster, Bridport or Sherborne may well be in West Dorset too, it doesn’t mean we’ll have any of that legacy. Go on, it takes a minute, does not cost a penny and it’s nice to be full of hope once in a while…

To Infinity and Beyond? Go: http://on.fb.me/c0Fn20
21/10/2010 No comments

Palmers Brewery to auction Old Swan in Toller Porcorum (UPDATED)

The Old Swan in Toller Porcorum is for sale on a 999-year lease with a covenant that it should remain as a pub. The guide price is £175,000; Palmers’ property agents Chesterton Humberts will conduct the auction on December 16 at 3pm in Toller’s village hall. The pub’s been closed for 12 years, prompting a long campaign for its reopening by the Save Our Swan group.
05/09/2010 3 Comments

UPDATED: Western Gazette sales plunge in West Dorset

THERE’S been an extraordinary collapse in sales of the Western Gazette’s West Dorset and Sherborne editions.

Sales of the West Dorset edition dropped to just 317 a week during the first half of this year, according to official circulation figures.

The Sherborne edition fell to 445 a week.

What were they before?

Look at this.

Average circulation of the Gazette’s West Dorset edition for the second half of last year (July – Dec 2009) was 2,663.

Sherborne’s average sale over the same period was 2,841.

So the West Dorset edition has lost 2,346 of its buyers – that’s 88%.

The Sherborne edition has lost 84% of its buyers (2,396).

The Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) certificate for the Western Gazette, over the first half of this year, is unusually revealing because of the paper’s merger between March and June of its West Dorset and Sherborne editions.

So you can see that at the start of this year the West Dorset edition was selling 925 copies a week, Sherborne 1,044.

If those numbers seem much less than the ones given above for the last six months of 2009, well, we must remember that those figures were averaged out over six months, and guess that they must have been considerably higher in the summer of 2009 than they were at the end of the year.

Anyway, come March 2010 the Western Gazette suddenly merged its Sherborne and West Dorset editions, with Sherborne initially given much greater prominence than West Dorset.

The merger was not well received in the Bridport area.

Nevertheless, sales for the joint edition from 18 March to 3 June averaged 2,304; that’s more than the combined total for West Dorset and Sherborne at the start of the year.

However, in June the two separate editions appeared again. At the time, a Western Gazette staffer told me, in conversation, that the merged edition had indeed proved to be particularly unpopular in the Bridport area, where readers had been deserting it.

Are they coming back? Buyers, once lost, can be hard to recover.

The ABC website only gives figures up until the end of June, which takes us back to where we started: West Dorset 317, Sherborne 445.

The Gazette’s circulation overall for Jan – June 2010 is recorded as 30,052 (down from 30,789 July – Dec 209).

So West Dorset now accounts for just over 1% of that, Sherborne nearly 1.5%.

Incidentally, the population of the area covered by West Dorset District Council, which obviously includes Sherborne, is about 97,000.

Editor’s Note: The drops above – 88% and 84% – look incredible, but they are based on official figures from the ABC, and they have been double-checked. Nevertheless, if there is some mistake lurking somewhere, I’d be pleased to have it pointed out to me.

A puzzle about circulation

There is a further question about all these figures that I don’t understand, which is how exactly it’s been worked out that the Western Gazette’s average circulation for Jan – June 2010 is 30,052.

According to the ABC, it’s selling 3,847 in North Dorset, 12,345 in Yeovil, 3,482 in Crewkerne and 5,253 in South Somerset. That’s 25,017 in total. Then there’s an average of 280 added for multiple bulk sales, making 25,297.

The average figures for West Dorset and Sherborne are more difficult to work out, because of the odd periods of time that different editions were for sale, but let’s just – as an indicative figure – add up the different numbers for each edition and divide them by three.

We’ll cut the number for the merged West Dorset – Sherborne edition in half, giving 1,152 of the total recorded sale of 2,304 to each.

So, West Dorset: 925 + 1,152 + 317 = 2394, divided by three = 798.

Sherborne: 1,044 + 1,152 + 445 = 2641, divided by three = 880.

Add 798 and 880 to the previous total of 25,297 and you’ve got 26,695.

That is an indicative figure only but it’s still not very close to 30,052.

As I hinted before, I’ve got a horrible feeling I’m missing something here, or that there’s a mistake lurking somewhere, which is why I’ve been worrying at these calculations.

So I’ll say again: if anyone can enlighten me, please do.       
06/05/2010 No comments

Bridport firm’s net gain in Germany

THE BRIDPORT division of global netmaking firm AmSafe has bought up the knowhow of a German air cargo specialist.

The move is designed to ensure that Amsafe Bridport – based at The Court in West Street – gives the aviation industry what it wants.

Amsafe Bridport's base at The Court in West Street, Bridport. Photograph copyright Roger Cornfoot, reused under Creative Commons Licence.

One of the things the industry wants is less weight on board aircraft. Less weight means lower fuel costs.

Last year AmSafe Bridport introduced a lightweight cargo pallet net specifically designed to cut weight.

Now it’s bought “certain intellectual property and other assets” of Hoffmann Air Cargo Equipment (Hoffmann ACE), a privately-held company based in Friedberg that specialises in making high-tech pallet nets.

Hoffmann ACE is known for its investment in research and development, and it was unique in offering the lightest air cargo nets in the world made with a fibre called Dyneema. Dyneema is the world’s strongest fibre.

Now, Amsafe is the world’s leading supplier of palletised cargo nets, but Hoffmann prided itself on being technologically “one step ahead” of the competition.

In layman’s terms, it looks like it was one step ahead of Amsafe Bridport, which couldn’t beat it, so it bought it.

The cost has not been disclosed.

Ian Kentfield is head of commercial cargo for AmSafe Bridport. He’s based in Hong Kong, so I haven’t yet been able to speak him directly, but via Amsafe’s American HQ he’s quoted as saying:

“We are excited to bring Hoffmann’s knowledge and innovation into our business. AmSafe is committed to developing highly engineered solutions for the world’s cargo market; and with the addition of the Hoffmann ACE assets, we are now able to offer our customers additional lightweight products that improve fuel efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.”

Rope, net and twine have shaped Bridport’s history for centuries. In recent years, the industry has got more and more international, a process best described in Richard Sims’ excellent book Rope, Net & Twine: The Bridport Textile Industry (Dovecote Press, 2009). Amsafe Bridport’s deal with Hoffmann ACE continues the trend towards globalisation.

Hoffmann ACE employs 60 people worldwide, eight in Germany, the rest in Turkey, China and the USA.
29/03/2010 1 Comment

Good luck to the new Bridport SPAR: but what the hell is it all about?

FOR THOSE living in the East Street area of Bridport and finding themselves in urgent need of a packet of Sour Cream and Chive crisps at gone nine at night, those requiring a bracing tot of rum just after seven in the morning and those wanting to buy a second hand, or ‘previously viewed’, DVD from a rather limited selection the opening of the new Spar shop will prove an absolute God-send. The rest of us can carry on scratching, breaking wind and trying to touch the tips of our noses with our tongues.

Spar, East Street, Bridport

Another convenience, AKA rather pricey, shop has opened.

When the editor of this site asked me to take a look at the establishment my first reaction was that he had taken leave of his senses and gone as far round the bend as I am. I really don’t go in for a lot of grocery shopping. Reviewing pubs yes, restaurants, if I have to, or even knocking shops at a push, but the weekly grub and cleaning materials grab and I are normally as total strangers.

Anyway I did take a swan along there and have a look. My first reaction was – why? What is it all about? Why has a company spent a considerable amount of money to provide a service that will prove of great value to those needing a bar of ordinary chocolate during the hike from Waterstone’s to Bridport Sports and very few others?

It beats me, but I know as much about high finance as I do about doing the weekly shop.

Although it is clean, well lit and pleasant-looking, it offers nothing that either the locally-owned Threshers franchise next door or the first-rate newsagents on the corner of Barrack Street don’t. Plus, they offer a wider choice of what they do sell, and at less cost, than the new painted lady in their midst.

So is it unneeded and unwanted or have I got it totally wrong?

Time and the wallets and purses of the populace of Bridport will tell.

I can see no need for it.

Having said all that, I really do wish them well. They have turned a desolate ruin in the middle of town into an attractive, cheery and inviting shop. They have employed local people, which is a positive bonus in these straitened times and they are paying their business rates, which will benefit us all.

So good luck SPAR – but why the hell did you do it?
23/03/2010 No comments

500 sign up for Dorset’s first online weekly newspaper

DORSET’S first online weekly newspaper – the Dorset Weekender – has signed up 500 people in its first three weeks.

The digital edition is produced by View From Publishing, based in Lyme Regis.

It’s aimed at a younger audience than the View From’s five conventionally-printed free weekly newspapers.

Sources say that users registered to receive the Weekender are generally “a lot younger” than the readers of the free weeklies.

About two-thirds of those signed up are looking regularly at the online paper, which comes out on Friday afternoons.

Adverts in the Weekender are not yet being sold separately. That is due to happen when 2,000 people have registered. The target date set is the end of May.

Current Weekender ads are sell-ons from the company’s printed titles.

Kingston Maurward College, just outside Dorchester, is sponsoring a four-page wrap in this week’s View From newspapers, promoting the Weekender.

One View From source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “We don’t know whether it will work but we’re having a go. Response from those who have registered has been very positive.”

Editor’s Note: The Weekender is well worth looking at. (There’s a link here).

Firstly, because it’s not got many ads, it’s much more compact and attractive, much less sprawling than the printed newspapers.

Secondly, because it’s trying to fill the gap at the end of the week that’s been gaping ever since the Bridport News and Lyme Regis News moved Friday to Thursday and then to Wednesday.

Thirdly, if you like that kind of thing, it has an intriguing and well-informed Dorset Media Watch column by The Chronicler. I don’t know who The Chronicler is. It also has a nice feature about other Dorset websites (and, no, in case you’re wondering, it hasn’t included this one).

Fourthly, the Weekender is changing the West Dorset media landscape, just as much as moves by the Northcliffe-owned Western Gazette and the Newsquest-owned Bridport News and Lyme Regis News. These things are worth keeping an eye on, it seems to me, because they do shape how a place and its people think about themselves, discuss local issues, decide what’s important, and so on. I suppose that sounds a bit worthy, but it’s true!