Business partnerships hailed as key ingredient for success
The Padstow Seafood School recently played host to Cornwall's business leaders as Beacon South West marked three years of Boardrooms in the area. Beacon Boardrooms allow Beacon status companies to come together and share business knowledge, experience and insight and explore possibilities with one another. These Beacon companies are some of the South West's top performing businesses which have been recognised for their innovation and significant achievements.
The Boardrooms have spawned special interest groups to promote export trade, learning on pertinent HR, recruitment, and marketing issues, and have provided platforms for Beacon firms to explore business partnerships, such as the union between Sharp's Brewery in Rock, and Rick & Jill Stein's Seafood Restaurant.
Rupert Wilson, general manager at The Seafood Restaurant said of the partnership with Sharp's: "Becoming a Beacon company has certainly opened doors for us to be able to form partnerships with similarly ambitious companies, and most importantly to form alliances with other regional businesses in order to expand our offering and contribute some way to the local economy.
"After The Seafood Restaurant hosted a Beacon Boardroom, a dialogue was entered into with Sharp's about the possibility of developing a beer together. What is vital to a partnership like this is an open committed relationship where both parties have a passion for quality and ultimately the end product, in this case Chalky's Bite."
Sue Baker, project director at Beacon South West added: "There are many businesses which are finding the current climate challenging. What has been encouraging is that across the range of Beacon companies in the South West, there is such a positive feeling about the future prosperity of the region. The Beacon Boardrooms have an atmosphere of trust and confidentiality which has empowered Beacons to forge ahead with making partnerships in that environment. So much so, that The Seafood Restaurant is now entering into further partnerships with Proper Cornish and St Austell Brewery."
Sue added: "Eighty-four per cent of attendees at our biennial Beacon Summit, held at the end of last year, agreed that building collaborative relationships with other businesses based on value is possible, even in these turbulent times, and in marking three years of our Boardrooms in the area and celebrating these partnerships, Beacon companies are proving that the downturn isn't stopping them flourish."
