Burton & District Burton & District Chamber Patrons


Contact: Chris Plant T: 0845 6036650


CEO bids a farewell to solicitors’ practice


Going green: Willshee’s sales manager Craig Dasilva with Shabbir Yusoof


Willshee’s helps craft


store chain go green Craft store chain Hobbycraft – which has 90 outlets – has appointed Burton-based Willshee’s as its waste and recycling partner, in a bid to cut the amount of waste it sends to landfill to nothing. Hobbycraft’s Burton national distribution


centre has vast amounts of packaging to deal with, as well as refuse, which is now being taken to Willshee’s where it will be sorted, processed and recycled wherever possible. Any residual waste will be reprocessed into


RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel) which will then be used by waste-to-energy power plants. Hobbycraft distribution centre general manager Shabbir Yusoof said: “While doing the right thing is already part of who we are, we are all keen to make further improvements wherever we can. We were impressed by Willshee’s expertise and professionalism. Additionally, Willshee’s is less than three miles away which further helps our carbon footprint.”


Burton solicitors Smith Partnership have said ‘farewell’ to chief executive and founding partner Steve Mann following a 32-year career at the firm. Mr Mann qualified as a solicitor in 1981 after


graduating from Manchester University in 1978 and was one of the six founding partners of the firm in October 1987 when Brealey Mann merged with Smith Dean and Chittenden to form The Smith Partnership.


‘No-one has contributed more to the success of the firm over the last 30 years than Steve’


For the following 20 years he served thousands of private clients, specialising in criminal and licensing law before becoming managing partner of the firm, and then chief executive. That role will now be taken by his colleague,


Kevin McGrath. Mr Mann said: “I am proud to have played a


part together with a significant number of others, both past and present, in helping the firm reach its current position and, at the same


Happy retirement: Steve Mann and Kevin McGrath


time, to have been able to offer help and legal advice to so many people in the area.” Mr McGrath, who joined Smith Partnership in


1991, said: “No-one has contributed more to the success of the firm over the last 30 years than Steve.


“During his time as CEO the firm has gone from strength-to-strength.”


Check in to check out the Holiday Inn Express refurb


Burton’s Holiday Inn Express has undergone a £2m refurbishment, including its 82 bedrooms and public areas. The hotel – at Centrum 100 business park –


first opened in May 1997. As part of the refurbishments, each bedroom has received new furniture, carpets and curtains. The bathrooms have also been upgraded. The public areas have also been completely


redesigned, and have included an increase in the number of power and USB sockets. General manager Alan Northern said: “The last


Networking event gets revved up


More than 20 local businesses got together for a tour of Repton-based Gibson Technology, a leading supplier of motorsports engines, including Formula 3000 and the Formula 3.5 V8 championships. The tour showcased the company’s engines,


from design through to development, and what makes Gibson (formerly Zytek) different from standard automotive companies.


32 CHAMBERLINK June 2019 Chamber relationship manager Dan Joyce


(fifth from right above) said: “It was great for Burton Chamber to get businesses together to hear and learn from a local business that has had ups and downs and how it has adapted. “A lot of networking was done before the tour


and at the end Shamim Akhtar of ANESA Limited won the prize of an engine component that was raced in a 2014 Grand Prix.”


Holiday Inn Express Burton


five months have seen the hotel transformed into a bright, modern and exciting place for people to stay and relax.”


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