Happy New Year

Last week I had the pleasure of helping out with the Warwick and Leamington Foodbank following a request by Sarah Chapman, a Customer Service Advisor in Flexible Benefits, on my blog. Sarah and many other colleagues volunteer at the foodbank which operates out of 9 churches and community centres in the area. I was really impressed with the commitment from the small army of volunteers who help to distribute the food to those in need at what is their busiest time of the year. It is run by the Trussell Trust who we work with throughout our trading area and I am proud to say is one of our most important charity partners. 

Jeremy with Rupert in his attire

This week I have been out visiting some of our businesses with our Chief Retail Officers Rupert Newman and Alistair Rowland. Rupert popped into our Franche road super market in Kidderminster and it is fair to say attracted quite a lot of attention in his attire! Not to be outdone Alistair got into the Christmas spirit with Mandy Ghataore, the manager of our Franche road pharmacy. Mandy and the team have done a brilliant job in engaging customers during the season including producing some really creative poetry.

Alistair and Mandy

We also visited our Funeralcare home in Bridge Street, Stourport where Alistair and I met Jackie Smith, a Personal Funeral Advisor, and I complimented her on the design of the arrangement room which was one of the best I have seen and all her own work. I would particularly like to mention James Pollard, also a Personal Funeral Advisor, who works there and every year gives up his Christmas Day to help St Michael’s church in the town provide people with Christmas lunches who would otherwise go without. This year they are feeding 55 people and James is responsible for organising all the transport.

James Pollard

I also wanted to update you on Thomas Cook. Since the crash at the end of September we have taken on around 30 new colleagues who were former TC staff including Caroline Hubble who spent 19 years with them and now works at our Franche Road Travel branch. Congratulations to her and all the other former TC staff on their new roles.

Caroline Hubble (left)

Over the last few weeks I’ve had the privilege of learning more about the work of quite a few of our Regional Community partnerships but one that I haven’t mentioned is Restore, a mental health charity, in Banbury. This week they published a thank you to Midcounties on their blog. So in turn I wanted to say a big thank to the team there in particular Jo, Susan, Michelle and Stuart for leading our work on this.

Finally I just wanted to say again what a privilege it has been working with you all this year and to wish everyone a Happy New Year.