News featured in this article:

• City Farm Systems nominated for The 2024 Earthshot Prize
• Buckinghamshire florist Rebecca Marsala Flowers named one of UK’s best florists!
• Aylesbury's family-run restaurant The Works celebrates its 10th birthday year
• B P Collins launches its tenth annual £10,000 charity fund
• Saffery in High Wycombe celebrates a successful year
• Global Infusion Group are racking up the award nominations
• Money raised for Citizens Advice Bucks by Wycombe Swan pantomime

City Farm Systems nominated for The 2024 Earthshot Prize 

City Farm Systems (CFS) is delighted to announce they have been nominated for The 2024 Earthshot Prize. In parallel with Prince William announcing the 2023 award winners in Singapore at the end of last year, nominations were invited for the 2024 prize.

Writing on behalf of the Impact Entrepreneur selection committee, Laurie Lane-Zucker wrote: "It is with great pleasure that I inform you of your nomination for The 2024 Earthshot Prize. Your application stood out among many outstanding submissions, and we are honored to endorse your project as it aligns remarkably with the goals and values of The Earthshot Prize. Your initiative's potential for significant impact, alignment with the Prize's selection priorities, and the scalability of your solution were particularly impressive. We believe that your work embodies the transformative spirit and innovation that The Earthshot Prize seeks to recognise and support."

'Helping Smart Cities Feed Themselves' is why City Farm Systems was formed, with the aim of reducing the resources needed to provide healthy food.  Many news headlines mention shortages of fresh produce such as herbs and salads, while commercial greenhouses and Vertical Farms can no longer pay excessive overheads. With intensive indoor growers facing huge energy costs, City Farm Systems offer an alternative business model to supply crops that can often cost more to deliver than to grow.

CFS’s automated rooftop greenhouses help to avoid the most expensive final mile and vast amounts of transit-only packaging. This swaps food miles for minutes and metres, hands shelf life to the consumer, avoids empty shelves, and helps make healthy food affordable. City Farm Systems seeks partnerships in the commercial property and building services sectors and with any business who recognises the potential this offers.

Buckinghamshire florist Rebecca Marsala Flowers named one of UK’s best florists!

Being an independent retailer is tough, but Swanbourne florist Rebecca Marsala Flowers is bucking the trend and is delighted to announce that they have been accepted as a member of the exclusive Good Florist Guide. This means they can now proudly display the 2023/2024 roundel to show they are accredited - which makes them very, very special!

The Good Florist Guide is unique as it’s the only kitemark of quality in the world that not only checks and accredits all their members before they are allowed to display the coveted logo, but re-checks the members each and every year to make sure they are maintaining standards. This could be why this truly merit-based guide to the finest florists in the world is considered the gold standard of floristry, acknowledged as the ‘little black book’ of the very best British and Irish florists and likened to receiving a Michelin star award.

Buckinghamshire Business First is delighted to have supported Rebecca Marsala Flowers on their journey, providing the business with dedicated Growth Advice through our Growth Programme. Speaking about the support she received, owner Rebecca said: “The Growth Programme has taught me how to look at my business as an owner, instead of simply working in the business. The support has been extremely useful and motivating and I feel more confident in moving my business forward.”

Unlike other directories of florists, no-one can just buy their way in to the Good Florist Guide, and it certainly isn’t about how many likes or votes you can get! Being a Good Florist Guide member meant Rebecca Marsala Flowers had to undergo a rigorous evaluation process before being approved. And it isn’t just the flowers that get checked; they had to show that every part of their business is as gorgeous as the flowers, right down to the delivery vehicle, to make sure they meet the strict criteria of not just offering gorgeous designs, but also the best service and value for bespoke floristry and flowers.

Commenting on their success, Rebecca Marsala said: "We are delighted to be accepted into the Good Florist Guide. We are passionate about flowers, design, quality, and the service we give to each of our customers, so it is wonderful to have this recognised. What’s special about our business is that we specialise in delivering timeless luxury florals."

Aylesbury's family-run restaurant The Works celebrates its 10th birthday year

"Thank you Aylesbury" is the message from the team behind family-run restaurant, The Works, as they begin a year of celebrations in honour of their 10th birthday.

Owned and run by husband-and-wife team, Roger and Elaine Bolton, the Market Square restaurant has for the past decade served up delicious handmade ice cream, waffles and pancakes to thousands of local customers across Buckinghamshire. Planning is underway for a year of celebratory events with the aim of each event taking place on the 10th of every month to mark this magnificent milestone, while there will be a year-long media partnership with local radio station Bucks Radio.

Commenting on the milestone year, Roger said: “Aylesbury and the wider community has been amazing for us since day one. We’ve been blessed with wonderful local support, without which we really wouldn’t be here today. The work that goes on in the town to keep people coming back to Aylesbury by Aylesbury Town Council, the Mayor, and other business leaders, is simply fantastic. We have, and have had, brilliant support over the years to keep the business going.”

Talking about what is next for The Works, Roger revealed: “The sky’s the limit really. We’ve just launched The Works Gelato company which is a B2B company selling direct to trade. Our aim is to try and grow that side of the business over the next few years, along with keeping the restaurant an exciting and fresh place to come. Our High Wycombe restaurant now has three Escape Rooms within it so we’re looking to do more work with these this year, bringing in some new ideas.”

B P Collins launches its tenth annual £10,000 charity fund

Law firm B P Collins has announced that Buckinghamshire charities and not-for-profit organisations can now apply for a portion of its £10,000 charity fund, via its stewardship with Heart of Bucks. Since 2014, B P Collins has donated £100,000 to nearly 40 charities across the county.

B P Collins’ charity fund is centred on meeting three objectives, which reflect the firm’s CSR values: building stronger communities, providing better futures, and helping to create safer lives. As long as the objectives of the charities applying focus on one of these themes, there are no restrictions as to what the funding can be used for. It could be for general running costs, launching a new project or buying new equipment.

Previous recipients of B P Collins’ donations have included environmental, refugee, domestic abuse, youth, and health charities across Buckinghamshire. In 2023, Wycombe Women’s Aid, which provides safe accommodation as well as practical and emotional support within the refuge and through outreach in the local community to women, children and young people experiencing the effects of domestic violence, received £3,000.

Simon Deans, B P Collins’ senior partner says: “Since B P Collins launched its stewardship fund with Heart of Bucks 10 years ago, we have helped to fund new charity projects, provided a lifeline for struggling organisations and directly helped their beneficiaries. We look forward to meeting the incredible organisations we will be supporting this year, to learn how our funding will make an impact in 2024.”

Henry Allmand, Chief Executive of Heart of Bucks said: “We’re thrilled to be supporting the philanthropic efforts of B P Collins for another year. Its funds provide such a valuable resource to local communities and allow charities and community groups to continue making a real difference.”

The B P Collins fund is open for applications throughout January, before a shortlist will be decided. Those shortlisted will be guaranteed to receive a financial award. They will be invited to a lunch organised by B P Collins, before its staff vote for the charities that will receive donations ranging from £1,250 to £3,000.  

Applications are open until January 31st 2024.

For more information and to apply, please visit: www.heartofbucks.org/bpcollins-fund.

Saffery in High Wycombe celebrates a successful year

Saffery, the accounting and advisory firm, is celebrating 12 months of success in its High Wycombe office after growing its client base in several industries and expanding its team.

Since January 2023, it has experienced strong growth in key sectors across the Thames Valley and internationally, with a surge of clients in the legal, manufacturing and engineering, IT, and hospitality industries, including a hotel group operating from 14 locations in the Netherlands.

This exceptional growth has driven its team to expand by over 25% to just under 45 people permanently based in High Wycombe. Saffery also promoted Matthew Swansbury, who joined as a trainee in 2010, to Audit Director, and Daniel Pienaar became a Senior Manager after launching the Accounts and Outsourcing division in August. High demand has caused a rapid expansion of the new team over the past five months, which is providing key services to clients including bookkeeping, VAT compliance and management accounts preparation. Many school leavers and university graduates also joined Saffery this year as trainees, following in the footsteps of Matthew Swansbury,

Saffery's support of local communities in Buckinghamshire has also been cemented through its partnership with Heart of Bucks, a community foundation, which aims to tackle issues relating to poverty and isolation, young people, and the environment. Saffery sponsored the foundation’s annual report, as well as arranging various fundraising events during the year. Most recently the team held a Christmas raffle, which raised £370 for the charity, and with partners matching the amount raised by staff, the total amount donated was £740. In recognition of its efforts, Heart of Bucks recently named Saffery as Community Investor of the Month.

GIG are racking up the award nominations

Global Infusion Group has been nominated for three separate awards recently:

• Best Backstage/VIP Supplier, and Supplier Team of the Year at the Festival Supplier Awards
• Favourite Catering Company at the TPi Awards

Good luck to the whole team!

Oh no you didn’t! Oh yes you did!

Citizens Advice Bucks (CAB) are delighted to announce that the support of Wycombe Swan and Imagine Theatre, and the generosity of visitors to their enchanting family pantomime, Beauty and the Beast, has far exceeded their expectations, raising an amazing £4,845.

Citizens Advice Bucks’ Christmas Volunteer Appeal aimed to raise funds for 10 new frontline volunteer advisers to help them reach 2,000 more people across the county. The support of Wycombe Swan and Imagine Theatre was always going to be a tremendous help towards this appeal, with on stage mentions from the fabulous La Voix and regular bucket collections at the end of performances.

Citizens Advice Bucks provide free advice and support to thousands of people in Buckinghamshire each year who are facing challenging times and struggling with issues including the risk of homelessness, overwhelming debt, and discrimination. The support and advice they provide is free of charge and delivered by a team of dedicated and highly skilled volunteers and makes an invaluable difference to the lives of those most in need.

As we are amid the worst cost of living crisis the UK has seen for decades, thousands of people across Buckinghamshire are struggling financially and the demand on CAB's volunteers continues to increase, and to meet this they need to recruit more. 

Citizens Advice Bucks, CEO- Alice Copping says: "We were delighted to have been chosen as Wycombe Swan and Imagine Theatres nominated charity for the 2023 Pantomime. Citizens Advice Bucks believes everyone should have access to free, good quality, confidential and independent advice when they really need it. This is particularly crucial as the cost of living crisis continues to have a devastating effect on people with limited money coming in, some who have never needed help before.

"Our volunteer advisers are at the heart of our ability to provide people with the knowledge and the confidence they need to find their way forward – whoever they are, and whatever their problem. As demand for our help continues to soar, we need to recruit, train, and support more volunteer advisers to provide this essential help to those who need us. But we cannot do this without the help and generous support of our donors and supporters. This is why the generosity and kindness shown by audiences at the pantomime who donated a fabulous £4,845 means so much. This will enable us to train and support 2 new volunteers who in turn will support more than 300 families over the coming year, and each year thereafter."