News
UNIVERSITY STARS CELEBRATE SUCCESS
A WARMING BEDTIME STORY
Over 100 student and staff award-winners had the chance to meet the donors who sponsored their awards at a University of Brighton event celebrating a wide range of academic and extra-curricular achievements. A number of donors - including celebrity alumni such as DJ Norman Cook, author and illustrator Cressida Cowell and events promoter Harvey Goldsmith - joined University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Debra Humphris and the Mayor of Brighton & Hove to formally recognise the achievements of all of the prize winners. Gavin George (a former Business School student of the university and Chief Executive of the Laine Pub Company) told the audience why he chose to give and commented: “It was very moving to hear from recipients about just how much difference the awards and the university have made to their lives”. Harvey Goldsmith, who studied Pharmacy at the university and unsurprisingly was a very active Entertainments Offi cer during his student years, said: “This is a great innovation for the University of Brighton that gives students a chance to follow their dreams.” Harvey has set up a prize to encourage and reward new ideas for student enterprises. Norman Cook is supporting two prizes – one in Digital Music and Sound Arts and another in Television and Digital Media Production. Norman spoke about how inspired he was in hearing directly from the student prize winners: “It was great to meet the students in person and hear about life at my former university today. It means a lot to me to be able to create a prize like this.” VC Debra Humphris said: “As a university we are blessed with a dedicated, diverse and passionate community of students, staff and alumni. The continued involvement of our alumni, friends and partners will be key to the university’s ongoing success.” Debra has herself funded a prize for health practitioners and was able to meet her scholar in person during the event. If you are interested in fi nding out more about the University of Brighton’s prize schemes and how they make a difference, contact giving@brighton.ac.uk.
There are few more inspiring corporate stories than that of Sussex Beds. Just two years ago, the high street business was in grave danger of total collapse. The fi nancial crash combined with growing online purchases mounted to years of poor trading and substantial losses. The 35-year-old family run business was on its knees and in 2014 went into liquidation. “It was a dark time”, said Steve Pickering, MD of Sussex Beds. “My parents set up the business in 1981 and I’ve been working for the company since I was a teenager. To face losing everything – not to mention having to lay off my 36 fantastic staff – was horrendous. We completely restructured and introduced new branding and management systems. It was far removed from anything we’d ever done in the past but I felt we had nothing to lose.” The last ditch attempt worked and as a result the company experienced soaring footfall and profi ts to match. Sussex Beds is now planning an ambitious expansion programme for 2017. The unprecedented turnaround of Sussex Beds was recently recognised when they scooped the National Bed Retailer of the Year Award. “After all the diffi culties the company had faced I couldn’t believe we’d won,” says Steve. “We were entirely honest in our entry about being near to closure but the judges said the efforts we’d put in to transform the business had contributed to us being chosen. “Winning the award was a very emotional time for all of us, who’ve worked tirelessly to turn the business around to the success it is today. I’m so proud of the team.”
www.sussexbeds.co.uk
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There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.
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