Category: Thame news

THE founders and owners of smart homes technology and AV specialists, Cyberhomes, based in Thame, have won one of this year’s Great British Entrepreneur Awards.

The award, in the category Smart Home/Internet of Things Entrepreneur of the Year 2016, was presented to Andy Mack and Ion Smith who founded Cyberhomes in 2004, in recognition of how they have steered and grown the company over the last 12 years to the point where they are now winning projects worth over £500,000 each.

The awards ceremony was held at Lancaster Hotel, London on Tuesday, November 22, and the award presented by popular comedian and broadcaster, Hardeep Singh Kholi.

Cyberhomes Director, Ion Smith, said: “This award came a bit out of the blue to be honest. We’ve had our heads down designing and installing great technology solutions for our clients, so to be recognised like this from outside our niche industry is a genuine honour.”

Fellow Directo, Andy Mack, said: “I’m really proud of the company we’ve built; and it was great to find ourselves alongside other highly respected entrepreneurs that were shortlisted or won their respective categories. Thanks also to the sponsors, including NatWest and Kingston Smith, who helped make this
all possible.”

Cyberhomes work closely with clients, architects, developers, interior designers and M&E consultants to integrate control and AV systems within overall building design and performance. The Cyberhomes founders have a background in live broadcast studio technology for the BBC and take the same rigorous approach with the equipment, cabling and software behind home automation projects.

DOWNTON Abbey star, Samantha Bond, aka Lady Rosamund Painswick, will be in Thame on December 3, when she will present the prizes in a Christmas shop window display competition, part of Small Business Saturday in the town.

Samantha, also recognised for her role as Miss Moneypenny to Piers Brosnan’s James Bond and other roles including in the Hercule Poirot films, will present the first prize of a case of Prosecco, a consultation with retail marketing expert, Keith Slater, and a trophy to the winning shop, as well as runner-up prizes.

The winners of the Small Business Saturday Young Entrepreneurs Competition will also be announced, following a Dragon’s Den-style presentation to the panel of judges on the same day. The winner will receive a cash prize of £500, a year’s mentoring from a business expert, and a trophy. There are also prizes for two runners-up. The prizes will be given by John Howell MP and Tim Luscombe of Thames Valley Business Advisers, Chair of the judging panel.

The organisers of Small Business Saturday in Thame have lined up nine, free-to-attend workshops and one2ones with several business experts, and there will also be entertainment throughout the day, provided by the Thame Pop Choir and Stagecoach Thame.

Small Business Saturday is a national campaign that puts small, independent businesses across the country in the national spotlight, using the theme ‘Small Business Big Difference’.

The organisers are expecting lots of interest from local small businesses as well as from anyone planning to start a small business, and advise pre-booking to avoid disappointment. Events can be pre-booked at www.smallbizthame.uk where more information about the workshops, one2ones and other events can also be found.

A Thame recruitment business, whose three current recruitment consultants have a combined service of 40 years with the company, is celebrating 30 years in business in the town.

In November 1986, Suzanne Young started Downtown Recruitment. She saw a gap in the market in Thame and the surrounding area and was confident she could fill it. This proved to be the case, and Downtown quickly became the leading Thame recruitment agency. Suzanne’s son, Steve Young, joined the business in February 1997 and has been running the company successfully for over 15 years. Steve himself recalled:

Changes over the years

“Over the last 30 years, the recruitment industry has seen many changes and has grown rapidly. When Suzanne originally started the business everything was record-card based. This was eventually replaced by a database and then specialist recruitment software to help in all areas of the recruitment process. The original local newspaper advertising has now been taken online through the many online jobs boards. Downtown Recruitment still has a large database of locally sourced candidates that contact the company whenever they are looking for a new job.

“Over the years, the company has dealt with numerous local businesses and helped to place over 3000 people into permanent roles and around 5000 people into temporary work placements, helping to put more than £60 million into the local economy.

“The local employment market has been strong since 2011 (after the last financial crisis) and unemployment levels in the local area are currently around 0.4% compared to the national level of 4.8% in November 2016.

Development brings stimulus to the local economy

“Due to Thame’s proximity to London, many people commute to work. However, there is a strong local employment market. This has led to a skills shortage in some sectors. Due to Thame’s ever increasing popularity as a market town, the population has been growing. This is mainly due to the many new homes that have been built in recent years and many more that are currently under construction, bringing in more potential employees to the local area. In addition, there has been a steady stream of new business units being built in Thame, Long Crendon and other parts of the local area, bringing in more local businesses and helping to stimulate the strong, local economy even further.

“Downtown Recruitment looks forward to continuing to support the local economy through our continued business success and to working with many local companies,” concluded Steve. “We also look forward to finding interesting roles for new job candidates and the returning candidates that we have previously found work for.”