Husband and wife team Gerry and Louise Flynn bought the catering business that runs from the Old Station Café, on Victoria Avenue, last April. And despite some in the industry finding the going a little tough, the Flynns were delighted with the response to their opening.
‘We had a brilliant first season,’ Mrs Flynn said. ‘We were helped by some really good weather.’
‘At least 50 per cent of our custom is local,’ Mr Flynn added. ‘People know the café and we want to make it a destination for them.
A decision to provide Thai cooking last summer proved popular – especially when live music was mixed in to the recipe on Fridays and Saturdays.
‘But people kept asking for takeaways,’ Mrs Flynn said, ‘so we started supplying them at the end of October.’
With the kitchen at the café not big enough to provide the food for both ventures, the Flynns sought other premises to fill the need.
‘The answer was a second kitchen for the Thai takeaways, which we opened at the Mont Félard Hotel,’ she explained.
The joint operation now employs a team of 14 staff, with three chefs working from the Mont Félard site.
Finding sufficient drivers to deliver the takeaways can sometimes prove a difficulty, but the couple can call on a small pool of willing helpers, including a number of their own relations.
Back at the café, even in February a sunny Sunday can see every table at the venue taken.
‘To help combat the weather, we put up a canopy,’ Mr Flynn said. ‘We can seat 36 people underneath it and a further 28 inside the café itself.’
For the future, a shed is planned from which drinks and ice creams will be served to beach-goers and passers-by, helping to relieve pressure on demand for food from the café.
Clearly a couple with determination and a sound entrepreneurial spirit, Mr and Mrs Flynn know what it takes to succeed in the catering business.
‘Good service is a major strength,’ Mrs Flynn stressed. ‘We always look at the business from the perspective of the customer.
‘Our team has been given training in customer service, as well as appropriate training in food and hygiene standards.’
And the good news is that Thai meals will be back on the menu at the Old Station Café this summer.
MORE than 50 people attended a hospitality recruitment open day held by Seymour Hotels recently.
The response to the event, which took place at the Merton Hotel, was evidence of the hotel group’s commitment to helping Islanders find positions in the hospitality industry.
The open day also highlighted the diversity of jobs available, from gardener to children’s entertainer and from lifeguard to receptionist.
Seymour Hotels have worked closely with the Social Security Department over the last few years to support their hospitality Back to Work scheme and prepare local people for careers in the hospitality industry.
The joint venture between Seymour Hotels and Back to Work also showcased the many career opportunities that exist in the industry and roles that will be available at the various Seymour Hotels properties over the coming months.
Those attending the event ranged from school leavers to people with considerable work experience, and applications were taken for a wide range of roles, including porters, receptionists, housekeepers, waiters, kitchen staff and lifeguards.
Claire Reynard, group personnel and training manager for the Seymour Hotel Group, said: ‘I am delighted with the response and have been impressed by the motivation shown and the standard of applications received.’ She added that it was good to see so many people wanting to work in the hospitality industry.
Seymour Hotels are also working with the Jersey Employment Trust and have recently held an Introduction to Hospitality at the Pomme d’Or Hotel. This involved clients of the Jersey Employment Trust gaining hands-on experience of different areas in hospitality, from bed making to table laying.
Ms Reynard said the Introduction to Hospitality had given the JET clients a better understanding of what is involved in the hotel industry.
The family hotel group are also involved in a joint venture with the Hospitality Management Apprentices scheme, run by Trackers, by offering placements at the Pomme d’Or Hotel. ‘We will be looking at employing the students during this summer and also when they have finished the course,’ Ms Reynard said.
Many of the staff employed by Seymour Hotels started their careers with a work experience placement organised by Project Trident, Trackers, the Advance to Work scheme, the Back to Work scheme and the Jersey Employment Trust. This commitment by the company was acknowledged when it received a platinum award for skills development at the Jersey Skills Show.
ADMINISTRATION and corporate services firm Crestbridge has continued to strengthen its senior team in Jersey with the appointments of Fiona Wilson and Steven Morrice.
Ms Wilson joins Crestbridge as director, Corporate and Capital Markets Services, and in her new role will take a lead in expanding the firm’s listings and wider corporate services.
She has a background in law, in private practice and in-house, which spans 17 years, including experience in Jersey and Australia.
Specialising in corporate law, funds, capital markets and trusts, she brings with her a comprehensive understanding of laws, codes of practice, company secretarial law and corporate governance.
Steven Morrice joins Crestbridge as associate director in the Real Estate Services team, which is seeing rapid growth in the volume and value of property structures it manages and administers across the UK, Europe and further afield.
A chartered surveyor with 25 years of real estate experience, he brings his property knowledge to the firm, having held senior positions at a number of commercial property companies.
He was executive director of a fully quoted UK property company and real estate investment trust.
Graeme McArthur, CEO of Crestbridge, said: ‘Fiona and Steven have the experience and specialist knowledge to help Crestbridge maintain growth in real estate and corporate services, which continue to perform extremely well in Jersey.
‘Jersey continuing to assert itself as a centre for listings services, with more than 100 Jersey companies currently listed on nine exchanges around the world.
‘It is also cementing its long-standing position as a specialist centre for real estate structuring, with the value of real estate funds in Jersey growing by about a third over the past year alone.’
THE global economy is best described as ‘divergent’ and characterised by ‘uneven growth’, UBS Wealth Management’s chief economist, Bill O’Neill, told an audience of 150 private investors and intermediaries at the UBS CIO Forum, held recently at the Royal Yacht Hotel.
The forum began with an introduction by Michael Clarke, executive director of UBS Jersey and a video featuring world-renowned data visionary Hans Rosling, who was addressing an earlier UBS Forum in Madrid. Commenting on Professor Rosling’s presentation on geo-demographics, Mr O’Neill said that while ‘low inflation is a convergent theme across economies, with 75% of developed economies experiencing low inflation,’ the overall picture is one in which emerging economies have lost momentum. At the same time Europe is labouring, leaving the ‘fairly steady’ US as the principal driver of global economic growth.
With US growth of just over three per cent expected in 2015, Mr O’Neill expects a small rise in US interest rates later this year.
Outside the US, the low inflation and low growth environment is expected to last and he believes that ‘it will be 2016 or 2017 before inflation is back to central bank levels’.
In the UK, the low inflation environment is likely to persist, possibly dropping towards zero per cent this year. However, consistent growth of 2.4% in 2015 and 2.9% in 2016 is expected to guide the Bank of England towards interest rate rises in the latter months of 2015.
On the macroeconomic front, Mrl O’Neill explained that there are risks. However, investors shouldn’t be too swayed by the recent political changes in Greece.
‘Events like those in Greece are going to maintain the sense of macroeconomic risk,’ he said. ‘However, the eurozone isn’t about Greece doing well but about big economies like France and Italy doing better.’
Similarly, another process that has made headline news recently is the fall in oil prices but Mr O’Neill doesn’t foresee it creating any systemic problems, saying that: ‘We do not see the oil price decline triggering massive structural effects.’
The effect of national and regional economies going down different paths in this way, will likely create a recipe volatility which will affect investors’ decision-making.
James Mulford, executive director, Investment Management, at UBS Wealth Management, also took to the stage to explain how, in spite of the unfolding story of diverging economies and increased volatility, UBS is able to manage client portfolios by adhering to its own investment processes.
As well as explaining how UBS’s strategic approach to asset allocation guided 80% of returns, the audience were invited to answer a series of questions about their own investments.
Interestingly, the results showed a lack of confidence among the audience about their own personal investment decisions. Fifty seven per cent said that they do not consider themselves a better than average investor while 42% said that their finances were not positioned for a diverging world. With volatility expected to increase over the course of the year, the results showed that investors are better placed when turning to professionals for investment advice.
In terms of investment advice, Mr Mulford explained that it is essential to maintain a broadly diversified portfolio with cash being kept to a minimum because it ‘is a dead weight’.
‘Real interest rates are minimal,’ he added. ‘Cash holds a penalty on performance and this is unlikely to change anytime soon.’
Mr Mulford, then explained that across equities and bonds, developed markets are preferred to emerging markets and that the expected volatility in the FX markets means that it will be important to hedge currency exposure.
