28218 SCC_FOCUS Summer pages LOW RES

MEMBER NEWS
THE MAGAZINE FOR BUSINESS LEADERS, MOVERS & SHAKERS
45
Teaming up to support the community
Local charity Arch has been chosen
as one of Hanley Economic Building
Society’s charities of the year.
The building society will be supporting
the work that Arch does to prevent
homelessness in North Staffordshire.
Sarah Forshaw, Operations Manager for
Homelessness, Housing and Complex
Needs at Arch, said: “Fundraising helps
us to provide more than just bricks and
mortar, it helps us provide support and
activities to develop resilience, skills for
independent living and aid people in longterm
recovery from crisis and trauma.
“The money raised by Hanley Economic
will support the funding of wider activities,
including equipment for our allotment and
materials for cooking lessons, through to
supporting a customer to get back into
employment.”
Staff from across the building society will
be taking part in fundraising activities and
volunteering throughout the year.
Deborah Henry, Head of HR at Hanley
Economic, said: “We chose to support
Arch because this links in well with our
focus on supporting the community and
reaching out to people of all ages to help
end homelessness and promote social
inclusion.
“Our business is all about helping people
to get their own homes and we feel we
can also provide support to Arch by
allowing our staff time off to volunteer,
either in a practical capacity or using their
specialist financial knowledge to mentor
individuals.”
Hanley Economic will also be supporting
Dougie Mac, Alice Charity and the YMCA.
25-year celebration
Brothers Stephen and Simon Ward are celebrating the 25th
anniversary of Graphix.
The brothers began Graphix on the kitchen table at their
parents’ home and have masterminded growth which has
seen the company work with household names such as
bet365 and Help for Heroes.
The Norton-based business has shown year on year growth,
with funds repeatedly being reinvested in new state of the art
equipment and in the Graphix team.
Stephen said: “I guess a key to our success is a refusal to
stand still. We had ambitions to create a full-service agency
with the capability to create high quality design and then
give our customers the finished product, whether that be
a new brand, website, vehicle graphics or signage.
“We are a growing business and the level of equipment
that we have allows us to complete large format print
work to a very high standard. We have also grown
our team, investing in talented senior level designers,
managers and sign fitters.”
This has been demonstrated in a major investment
programme over the past three years with Graphix
spending around £300,000 on new printing presses.