It's great to do good stuff And whether we're getting behind a worthy cause or proving we're way ahead of the competition, from our charity work to our award wins, check out all the good stuff we've been up to.
When it comes to doing our bit we do the lot. Whether it’s running, riding, jumping from a plane whatever - if it raises money and helps make a difference we’ll do it. See, charity may begin at home.
Extreme weather did not halt this awesome challenge on the Exmoor National Park. 150 people, including our brave participants, rose above the elements in September 2008 to complete the Cap Gemini Wild UK Challenge, raising over £100,000 for The Prince’s Trust.
I raised over £1,000 for the Levana School Partnership and the team and I are extremely grateful for everyone’s donations.
I finished the run in 58 minutes, managing to slip past both a cheering wife and son and fresh film crew – so I’m sorry but there are no photos of me staggering over the finish line!
fresh Director, Julie Besbrode, chose to mark a prestigious awards win by donating £2,000 to The Robert Whiteson Memorial Fund for Research into Hodgkin’s Disease. The fund was launched in memory of her first cousin, who died from the disease.
Robert Whiteson, from Gatley near Cheadle, was a former patient at The Christie and the Manchester Royal Infirmary. He died twenty years ago and the memorial fund supports a research doctor at the MRI as well as providing donations for essential equipment.
The donation came off the back of fresh scooping the highly covetable Young Business of the Year title at the 2005 Manchester Evening News Business Awards, a mere 14 months after the company’s inception.
Julie, was “on cloud nine” at the win. She said: “This is a tremendous honour that we barely dared to hope for, given that fresh was only eleven months old when we submitted our entry. I’m proud and delighted to be able to share our success with such an important cause as The Robert Whiteson Memorial Fund, which conducts vital research into Hodgkin’s disease.”
fresh launched the Nigel Griffiths memorial award back in 2006. The charitable fund is in memory of Nigel Griffiths, a talented young designer, who lost his battle to throat cancer three years ago. Nigel was a close friend and mentor of fresh director, Nick Porter. Following a lengthy search for a suitable cause, the donation to the LinkIT Centre is the award’s inaugural project.
The LinkIT centre is a unique project that offers computer-based, design-led activities and education to young people. Visitors to the centre are mostly aged between 14 and 16 and are outside of mainstream education. Many of the children who attend have learning difficulties and complicated home lives. Nick believes that the donation will be extremely well spent as he suffers from dyslexia himself and understands the barriers that youngsters can encounter throughout their education.
Nick said: “I’m delighted to honour Nigel’s memory in this way. He helped me so much through the early stages of my career and he’d be thrilled to know that fresh is able to support others like this. The LinkIT Centre is a really exciting initiative, and it’s doing great things for kids who are otherwise lacking in support. If, by providing them with the right tools, we can help them pursue a career in design, we’ll be over the moon!”
Damian undertook the BUPA 10K run again this year, this time in partnership with his friend Charlie. Together they raised over £550.00 (and still counting) for the Levana Partnership. Levana Primary School is situated in a poverty stricken area of South Africa and the Levana Partnership has for a number of years supported the school by raising funds for it's construction and running costs. Now the funds raised also provide much needed equipment, books and other facitlites that can brighten and improve the lives of the disadvantaged pupils. Damian finished the run in 58 minutes and 30 secs - quicker than last year and once again raising money for a great cause. Well done Damo!
We love to do our bit, and when we started to look for a nominated charity for the year, we didn't have to look far for a local charity making a huge difference. We are thrilled to announce that we have chosen Francis House as our nominated charity for 2011/12.
Based in Didsbury, South Manchester, Francis House provides care for children and young adults with life limiting conditions, as well as offering support and friendship to the whole family. Receiving only a small proportion of funds centrally, the hospice relies on donations to make up the rest of the substantial running costs to provide the services families desperately need. On 5th July, Francis House announced the building of a new facility adjacent to the existing site on Parrswood Road which will increase the amount of respite care it can offer, especially to older teenagers. The benefits of medical advances has meant an increasing number of teenagers and young adults require the services of the hospice but with a little more independence in an environment more suited to their age and needs, and as Francis House never put an age limit on their care, their resources are more stretched than ever before. The new unit will cost £3.6 million to build, and the campaign to raise funds for this was launched by Sir Alex Ferguson and Kirsty Howard.
fresh are thrilled to be working with a charity which is a huge success story of our region, opening in 1991 with little funding, now caring for hundreds of children and their families, and understand that whilst an appeal for a specific area, such as the new building, is less difficult to raise funds for as there is a tangible result, the daily running costs are the hospice’s biggest expenditure. Fresh aim to work with the charity, not only to fundraise for this, but also to offer support across all our group services. We’re so pleased to be working with such a fantastic local charity – the work they do and the support they offer is amazing and the team, both staff and volunteers, work tirelessly to create a happy, secure and restful environment offering much more than just medical support. The whole of the fresh team are looking forward to being part of Francis House as it moves forward in the next stage of its development.
Winning isn’t everything but nothing beats beating the rest and racking up some awards. They prove it’s not just us who believes we’re the best. So why not check out some of the gongs currently gracing our trophy cabinet.
Won after first year of trading in 2005 impressing the judges with our early win of business with Marks & Spencer. The trophy was presented to the fresh directors by Shadow Foreign Secretary, the Rt Hon William Hague MP William Hague.
Nick Porter was awarded the title of Cheshire Young Director of the Year 2007 at the Institute of Directors (IoD) annual awards ceremony, held at the City of Manchester Stadium. IoD North West regional chairman Ann Jordan said: "Nick has clearly shown a great deal of energy in building up a successful business, now worth £5m, while not losing sight of the need to invest in people and find new ways of doing things."
Julie Besbrode Co-Founder & Director of fresh made the final 40, under the age of 40, carefully selected from a long list of worthy nominees, due to her overall impact within the Greater Manchester business community. Julie was presented with her Award at a special dinner at The Midland Hotel on Thursday June 19th 2008.
The awards recognise the passion and drive behind entrepreneurial businesses, whether private or listed, family-owned or private equity backed, across all commercial and industrial sectors and at any stage of business development, so imagine co-founding directors Julie Besbrode & Nick Porters pride at being nominated as finalists for the North, held at the new Manchester Hilton Hotel hosting one of its first events.
The Awards took place on Thursday 29 November 2007 at indigO2 at The O2, where fresh was awarded Bronze for Business Event of the Year for producing the M&S Head Office Annual Conference at Earls Court.
The SWOT Awards, the annual celebration of marketing excellence, was held in 2008 at Manchester's Hilton Hotel, where fresh was nominated for a potential hat trick including the Abbey Convention at Olympia, M&S's Head Office event and 'Another 48 Hours' video for Best Direct & Promotional Strategy.
That's right - it was celebrations a plenty on table 9 at the Marketing Industry Network awards as fresh scooped Events Company of the Year. Nick joined Julie on stage to accept the award to much cheering and even some whooping from the fresh team, although table mounted cheering was sadly prohibited. We obviously intimidated the other nominee in our category with just our submission, as they didn't actually turn up for the evening’s entertainment... well; we are scarily good at what we do...
According to the judges at MIN fresh were awarded the title for our "...ability to handle a huge activity base, [our] strong commitment to delivery, being ethical and people focussed..."
What a night!
The Crain's scheme is designed to honour the area's leading employers looking specifically for companies that go beyond the norm to foster an enjoyable and meaningful work environment for their employees. Companies are judged based on the results of an independently administered employee survey.
Fresh scooped Events Company of the Year at the MiAwards 2010 - for the second year in a row! So if you didn't hear us the first time - its official: we are events company of the year... again!
At the inagural dinner for the Brand Event Awards, fresh scooped the Best Fashion Brand Event in partnership with Marks & Spencer for the M&S START exhibition at Clarence House.
It was a great night at Wembley Stadium as fresh scooped two awards: Best Use of Technology for our interactive Santander "Wonderwall" and Best Experiential Event for M&S START. Two awards in one night!
And it's a hatrick, as fresh win the Marketing Industry Awards Events Company of the Year award for the third year running!
After months spent collecting and collating financial and client data of hundreds of agencies based outside London, the Recommended Agency Register’s definitive Top 100 list of marketing services companies has now been revealed and it places The fresh Group at No 1
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