Quorn Business News

Continuing the Australian theme of this issue, "The Quorndon" is pleased to bring you two new Faces behind the Businesses — both Australians who have settled in Quorn.

Welcome to Creative Memories

Imagine a beautiful personalised memory book for the new grandmother and grandfather, or a special record of your wedding to send to far away relatives. Or what about an elegant photograph album, full of pictures and comments that show your life and which will be treasured for years to come ­ somewhat better than keeping the photographs in an old shoebox.

Creative Memories, one of Quorn’s latest businesses, can help you achieve this. Creative Memories is a worldwide company, operating around the globe through a series of dedicated consultants, one of whom is Angela Bishop in Quorn.

Twelve years ago, Angela, originally from New South Wales, Australia, went backpacking around the world, found romance in the Midlands and stayed here. Now married with two small children, Angela has turned a life long interest in scrapbooking and preserving photographs into a business.

She had been introduced to Creative Memories in Australia by a friend, and had used their products. In Australia there are over 7000 consultants, whilst in the UK there are only about 700. Hence there was a great business opportunity in this area, particularly as the interest in crafts, including scrapbooking and photograph preservation is growing daily. You only have to look at the number of new magazines coming out almost monthly.

Some of you may have seen scrapbooking products, bought one of the many magazines, or been interested and active in this for some time. Creative Memories takes a different approach with the emphasis being on preserving the photographs, with written memories to accompany them ­ just like a storybook, but of your life. There is no need to have great artistic talents , the products guide you, and Angela can demonstrate the different techniques and results that can be achieved quickly and easily. On the other hand, if you want to produce elaborate and artistic pages, Angela can help you with accessories to achieve this look. Creative Memories also help by supplying an ideas folder every quarter.

One of the hottest products from the US, is the scrapbook postcard; a small number of pages that can be made into a memorable Christmas card or present for someone far away or close at home. Just the thing if you have a new baby, or are recently married.

If you are interested in leaning more, Angela is pleased to do a demonstration in your home, to you, and your family and friends. She is also pleased to do a presentation to your group about the pleasures of scrap booking and preserving your photographs. Do you have an existing interest in scrap booking or would like to start this fascinate pastime, Angela would like to start a ‘scrapbook club — so get in touch.

With the long dark evenings of winter stretching ahead, maybe this is the time for you to get out the shoebox, look through your photographs and decide how you would like to keep them to their best advantage, for you, your family and maybe the generations to come. To find out more, read Angela’s advertisement on page 47 or get in touch with Angela.

From Melbourne to Kathmandu to Quorn ­ Swagman DIY

Glenn James, Swagman DIY, was born in Melbourne, Australia, where he worked as a mechanic for General Motors in their Research and Development Department building and testing new models. After ten years, the Australian wanderlust set in and a trip to Africa introduced Glenn to the adventure holiday market. He joined the UK adventure company, Dragoman, as a tour guide leading groups of 10 -20 people around South America and the Middle East. It was on these trips that Glenn became involved in projects helping the people in the countries they were visiting, these included setting up a school programme in Ecuador, which is still supported by Dragoman.

On one of these trips he met Jo, a pharmacist from the village, who now lectures at De Montfort University. After two years of a long distance relationship, including far-flung places like Kathmandu, Jo and Glenn married and settled back in Quorn, and now are the very proud parents of a beautiful baby daughter.

After the independence of life as tour guide, where Glenn had full responsibility for his work, and to use his wide range of amassed skills, he decided to establish Swagman DIY, a company specialising in all those DIY jobs that people had no time or skills to do themselves.

Painting, decorating, laminate flooring, garden clearance, general DIY ­ these are the main services that Glenn has to offer. Glenn prides himself on giving a high quality, friendly and responsive service. He wants people to feel confident about leaving their property maintenance to him, knowing that he will do a high quality job, whilst looking after their property.

Like many Australians, Glenn is eager to extend his services. Following training with a major UK company, Glenn has recently established a new company, Coffix, supplying, servicing and maintaining coffee machines for coffee shops, restaurants and bars. However, Glenn assured "The Quorndon" that his main focus was, and would continue to be, Swagman DIY, as he wants to work within the local community.

Up and Still Running Well!

The year has seen a steady growth in new activities at the Cons. Club, along with the re-establishment of several old favourites.

After a break of one or two years, as the club skittle alley was no longer available, our annual Flower Fruit & Vegetable Show was held in the club on Sunday 12 th September. All went extremely well for both exhibitors and organisers alike, and many, many thanks are due especially for the time and effort put in by Stan Heath, Trev and Julie, and of course Tony and Sue Lawton. An excellent day, which ended with a grand auction ­ well done to everybody concerned!

The use of our renovated upstairs bar continues to flourish, and likewise our “new and improved” snooker room is being frequented by more budding Hurricane Higgins’, than for many a long year. There has been an increase in the sporting fraternities who are making use of the facilities here, and in particular the local, potential, champion darts players. More teams than ever before are based at the club and Monday evenings are proving to be extremely popular. Thank goodness that one of Quorn’s local traditions is continuing to prosper and equally we are grateful for all those people involved with the somewhat arduous task of operating the league.

Finally, our Quorn Junior Football players certainly do look the real thing in their new strip. The club was delighted to sponsor this purchase and wish them all the success for the coming seasons.

deVol Workshops on the move

deVOL handmade kitchen furniture will be moving their workshops from Beacon View Business Park, Quorn to Jubilee Drive in Loughborough. deVOL have recently acquired a large detached factory unit at 38 Jubilee Drive.

The workshops, which have been in Quorn for the past 5 years, will be relocated over the next 3 months. The new unit was purchased with a large parcel of land which will be developed over the next 2 years to house deVOL’s expanding production facility.

A large design facility is also planned and the site will become deVOL’s Head Office. The showroom on the High Street will be retained to make continued use of the prestigious address and for the invaluable passing trade that it generates.

Faces Needed!

Jason Hall, of JH Electrical Contracting, has invented a web site that finds your double anywhere in the world, but needs more faces to make the site work.

The web site, www.yourdouble.com, currently holds 200 people, but needs around 2,000 more to make the site effective. He’s asking anyone, from 14 upwards to log on and submit a picture ­ and of course see if they have a doppelganger!

34 year old Jason, a Jimmy Somerville look-alike, came across the idea when holidaying in Spain and saw someone who closely resembled a friend. That gave Jason the idea and he set about buying the domain name and now runs the site from his kitchen in Quorn, where he checks all content and pictures before releasing it onto the web site.

Jason, married to Alison, with two young girls, has earned a reputation for ideas and inventions, like the rotating spirit level and easy to use tie. The Hall family is backing Jason, but knows the website will only succeed with help from the public.

Being a successful and hectic electrician, when asked, “Why run the site?” Jason replied, “Its a release from every day life. It’s something interesting to do and a bit of fun. You never know, it might be as successful as Friends Reunited!”

So if you would like to help Jason’s quest to make Your Double work, then log on to www.yourdouble.com, and submit your appearance details and picture. You never know, your double may be just down the road!

Photograph shows Jason with his new website advertised on one of JH Electrical Contracting’s vans

And finally …..

Despite our appeal in the last issue of "The Quorndon", businesses still seem shy and slow to come forward with their news.

Do you run a business in the village? Are you expanding? Have you won an award? Have you started a new business? Do you want local staff? Then contact us. "The Quorndon" Business News would like to hear more about the businesses and what they are doing.