East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s business services team continues to assess clients’ needs through what is currently a difficult time for us all and has recently helped one such business that provides a fresher outlook for the UK hospitality sector during the pandemic.
The team, whose advisors help businesses through the different schemes, is on hand for one-to-one support and guidance in accessing business grants.
Late last year, SPT Hotel & Catering, based in North Cave, were guided by the business team.
With their help, the company received European Regional Development Funding from the #GrowMySME programme of 40% towards the creation of a comprehensive e-commerce website and 40% towards a targeted digital marketing campaign running for three months.
SPT Hotel & Catering now promote their range of air purifiers to greater effect online, as the extra investment into the website has, for example, meant online payments for the units can be accepted.
Its company director, Steve Tradewell, recognised the need during 2020 for employees and guests within the hospitality sector to be better protected.
He said: “When we reopened again after the first lockdown in March last year, all these strict measures came in, and I thought about what the hotels were having to do to allow people back onto the premises.
“It struck me that while you can sanitise all the surfaces and even vacuum, whatever you’re doing actually makes a lot of particles airborne rather than catch them. So I started to research what type of air purifiers were available and what was their effectiveness.
“I thought that if we can get this into the middle of a hotel bedroom, have it running while the housekeeper is cleaning the room, anything airborne will be captured – making it safer for the staff in the room and also making the room a lot cleaner for when guests arrive.”
Steve also says that the air purifiers not only work in a hotel environment but they can be as effective in the workplace, indoor public spaces, meeting rooms, gyms, and even in the car.
Steve says that the help the council gave him in promoting the units has been “great”.
“Every step of the way the business team has been tremendous – from filling the forms, checking the forms, forms being submitted. They made sure they understood what our business is about, what our plans are and what grants were available to us.
“Initially, our contact with the team was for the website – then it was suggested that we go down the social media campaign route, and to be fair, I’ve been impressed with the way it has been handled.”
Steve was so impressed by the work of the team that he has recommended them to two other companies looking to expand and grow from their East Riding base.
Mina Heng, ICT business advisor at East Riding of Yorkshire Council who assisted Steve, said: “Many businesses come to us for support. We discuss their plans, look at the wider picture and suggest different avenues that they can explore, but ultimately it is up to the business to decide what they want to pursue.
“SPT Hotel & Catering Ltd has actively engaged with us, and it was a pleasure to guide them through each process to enable them to benefit from all the various schemes available to them.”
For further information and guidance from the business team – including further case study success stories – please visit the council’s Invest East Riding website at https://www.investeastriding.co.uk/
