Community News
2010 Community hero
Dee Patel and his team at Budgens, Woodbridge have been voted ACS community hero 2010 Dee Patel, Budgens, Woodbridge was crowned the ACS community hero 2010 at the gala dinner of this year’s Summit event. Through website voting and voting in-store, the ACS received over 12,000 votes for the finalists, which represents just how important strong local shops are in the heart of the their communities.
Dee’s store is an excellent example of how supporting the community can provide a mutual benefit both for charities and the store itself. By supporting different local charities, the team of staff at Dee’s Budgens have managed to raise over £40,000. The store supports the local Lions club, the Essex/Suffolk air ambulance, the Woodbridge Army Barracks, a number of local schools, community centres and Local Primary Care Trusts, among others.
When asked why fundraising was so important to the store, Dee said: “We noticed that there were very few businesses in the area that were helping the community . By fundraising and helping out with local projects we are trying to build a strong relationship with our customers and ensuring tat we’re seen to be supportive all over the community. We have had letters from soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq showing their appreciation for the work that we have done for the local families and for sending donations out to them”
Woodbridge store manager, Sean Casey, said: “Dee gave the staff the choice of what they would like to do with the winnings. We were given a range of choices from investing in the store, putting the money towards a social fund or donating it to charity. A group of us from the store are taking part in a 24 hour challenge in September for the Meningitis Trust, so the most likely option is that we’ll donate the money to that, as it’s an excellent cause.”
Going the extra mile
Budgens store owner Stephen Male has helped to raise over £900 for his local under 13s football team in St Ives. Despite sweltering temperatures, Stephen and seven other intrepid cyclists undertook a 35 mile sponsored bike ride through the surrounding towns and villages to raise over £750. Meanwhile, Stephen arranged for members of the football team to spend time in the store helping to pack bags for shoppers, raising a further £150. Managers of the football team, Gary Clarke and Andy Smith, thanked Stephen and his fundraisers, adding: “We’re extremely grateful to the Budgens team and their customers for their fundraising efforts and generosity”.
Community spirit
Paul and Michelle Gravelle ownBudgens stores in Sawston inCambridgeshire and Sawbridgeworthin Hertfordshire, where supporting their local communities has been a priority from day one. “It’s not just about raising money for local charities,” explains Michelle, “it’s about creating a great local store and being there for people.”
Given the credit crunch and high level of job losses in the community over recent months, the team worked alongside other local charities to demonstrate that it’s possible to feed a family of four, three meals a day for a seven day week, for under £60. This involved partnering with OWL, one of Paul and Michelle’s local charities, who supplied a chef and café venue, while the Gravelles donated the food for the event and £60 of food to win for one lucky person. The event included cooking demonstrations on how to cook healthy, low-cost meals and every customer received a set of recipe cards. Other groups donated crockery and utensils, making it a true community initiative.
At a recent Sawston fun run, Michelle and Paul showed that they were prepared to go the extra mile in support of the community by taking part in the race as well as fundraising via the store.
Of course, people don’t just shop with Paul and Michelle because they appreciate the work they do with local charities. Shoppers need to see real value for money too. “With times getting tougher, people are also responding to the way Budgens is helping to drive down the cost of the weekly shop,” says Michelle. “Over the last 12 months we’ve certainly seen more people switching to own brand sticking with it because of the quality and value.”
Paul and Michelle support a wide range of local charities, in a whole variety of ways. While fundraising is key, they understand that real support is about getting involved and creating a genuine local hub for the community.
World Cup flavour for store opening
Shoppers were in for a surprise when they were greeted by a David Beckham lookalike at the opening of the new Budgens store in Didcot, Oxfordshire. The first 100 customers through the door of the new 2,700 sq ft store were also treated to a free bottle of wine. John Mason, whose company Peregrine Retail owns the store, said: “We’ve had an amazing response from Didcot. We expected to get a slow build-up of people, but the place was absolutely jammed from the moment we opened at 10am.” Budgens Didcot is open from 7am til 10pm seven days a week.
Heart of the community
Paul and Michelle Gravelle, who own the Budgens store in Sawbridgeworth, are supporting their town to gain Fairtrade status.
As part of their ongoing support they hosted a ‘big swap day’ when they encouraged customers to swap one of their everyday items for a Fairtrade product, such as tea, coffee, sugar etc. The local mayor, Angela Alder, was more than happy to lend a hand and come along to promote the event.
The Gravelles have also run a stall at the local Sawbridgeworth Farmers Market, telling people more about Fairtrade and they’ve dedicated a shop window to the cause.
Heart of the community
Some retailers will go the ‘extra mile’ for their customers. Dave Beese who owns the Budgens in Southam, Warwickshire went the ‘extra 135 miles’ for one of his
When Dave heard the plight of one of his regular customers, Sheila, in the run up to the festive period he stepped in to help.
Sheila had ordered a diabetic Christmas cake from a local supplier, but was let down at the last minute when the cake arrived, just four days before Christmas, and wasn’t suitable for diabetics.
Dave knew of a confectioner who made Christmas cakes and could produce the necessary diabetic version in time for Christmas, but they wouldn’t be able to deliver it in time. So, not wanting to let any of his customers down, Dave left his Budgens store in Southam to make the 135 mile round to Telford to pick up the cake.
Heart of the community
Simon Tiensa who owns the Budgens in Faringdon rallied his staff to dress in traditional costumes to support the local community’s annual ‘heritage day’.
The town hosted such things as ghost walks, history walks and photo displays while the local Budgens offered free tastings of products along with free cups of coffee, soup, crisps and biscuits to customers. They even had a live band, ‘Blazing Saddles’, playing in the store to entertain shoppers.
Comments placed on the Faringdon website were really supportive, including such things as ‘Budgens were great – they really made a huge effort’ and ‘The town really came together from the leisure centre pumping up balloons to the fantastic day in Budgens’.
Says Simon: “We had a great time and after putting in the effort it makes it all worthwhile when you get comments like this.”
British Food Fortnight Celebrations
Budgens retailers get behind the British Food Fortnight campaign
Once again Budgens was the proud sponsor of British Food Fortnight (19 September – 4 October). Many of our retail partners took the opportunity to link up with their local primary schools with our Budgens bunting design competition, while many also ran their own activities, teaming up with local suppliers for tastings and even Red Tractor.
We take a look at some of the great activities that took place in Budgens stores over the British Food Fortnight.
Warner’s Budgens –
Bidford, Moreton in
Marsh and Broadway
Following on from last year’s
success, both the Budgens stores
in Bidford and Moreton in Marsh,
owned by Guy Warner, contacted
Red Tractor again to have the
famous red tractor parked
outside the stores during British
Food Fortnight to act as a ‘crowd
puller’.
Raffles were held at both stores too to win a ‘harvest hamper’. Needless to say the hampers were packed with locallyproduced fruit and vegetables, supplied by local producers. The Bidford store raised over £200 for the children’s charity CLIC (Warner’s Budgens has now raised over £10,000 for CLIC in the last 18 months).
The store at Moreton in Marsh raised £200 for the Shalon Children’s Home, Bukavu, Congo, a charity supported by Ella Warner, Guy Warner’s daughter. Adds Lucy Worrall, marketing manager for Warner’s Budgens: “We also held tastings at Moreton, Bidford and Broadway throughout the fortnight, with the majority of tastings taking place over the Friday, Saturday and Sundays of both weekends. Many local producers brought their own stock to sample and it was a great success. And what’s really exciting is that we’ve seen a clear increase in sales on our large locally supplied range of products.”
She adds: “British Food Fortnight is a great way for our customers to see exactly what Warner’s Budgens is all about.... supporting British producers, but in particular local producers. Our local producers also see it as a great way of talking directly to customers and telling their own story.”
Budgens, Newbury
Budgens Newbury visited their
local St Bart’s school to judge
their cookery competition for
British Food Fortnight.
The school had a chef from Aramark teaching them how to cook a dish and all the ingredients were supplied by Budgens, Newbury. The dish included plenty of fresh vegetables to create a tomato and beetroot salsa with light chilli dressing – ingredients included vine ripe tomatoes, fresh beetroot, runner beans, red onions, baby spinach, rocket, sorrel, red chillies and olive oil.
Budgens, Lightwater
Mike Duffy of Budgens,
Lightwater held a community
fayre to support British Food
Fortnight. Says Mike: “We had
dancers, craft stalls and some of
our local food partners who
happily donated samples and
tasters. A special mention must
go to Secretts Farm who gave
away some fabulous fresh
produce.”
Budgens, Stoneleigh
Budgens, Stoneleigh, owned by
Kanna Mahunda, linked up with
the local primary school to run
the Budgens bunting
competition, then held a prize
giving at the store, for relations
and friends to come along. Says
Kanna: “So many people turned
up that we couldn’t fit them all
inside the store!).
The local mayor, Jan Mason, came along to make the presentations and gave a rousing speech, praising Budgens for promoting healthy eating. Adds Kanna: “The little ones were in awe of her! It was a fantastic end to the British Food Fortnight.”
09/06/09
Budgens ‘Feast of fun’ to raise money for Helen and Douglas House
Last week the Budgens in Northcourt Road, Abingdon, owned by Sarah Lloyd, partnered with local suppliers to host a ‘feast of fun’ to raise money for Helen and Douglas House, the local children’s charity.
Throughout the week, local producers and small family-owned businesses including Field Farm Fresh, Crustys Bakery, Emma’s Country Cakes and Soupery were sampling their products.
What’s more, all these suppliers will be donating 5% of their total sales in the store throughout the week to Helen and Douglas House.
Last year the shop launched a ‘pennies for plastic’ campaign, donating 1p to Helen and Douglas House every time a customer didn’t use a new carrier bag.
Says Sarah: “This week we’re just taking our support a step further, teaming up with local producers and Helen and Douglas House. We care deeply about the quality and value of the food sold in our store and the community that we serve.”
Sarah and her team were joined by volunteers from Helen and Douglas House who were helping with bag packing. There were goodie bags for customers to take away too, plus a raffle throughout the week.