Thank you to all those who visited our stand at the Yorkshire Business Market 2012, we had lots of entries for our prize draw and can confirm the two lucky winners were:

Brian Marshall – RBS    

Steve Rae – Newtons Solicitors

They both won a Belkin Laptop Cooling Stand.

We were surprised when we heard we were a runner-up  in the ‘Best Large Stand’ category.  If you didnt get to see our stand at the market here are a few pics..

Thanks to Raquel Derevo from 20 Twenty Marketing for sorting out our stand and helping out on the day.

The Gables following installation of new windows & doors (Easter 2012)

Work is now well underway with the redevelopment of The Gables from a workshop into eight new offices which will be available early July 2012.

The Gables will comprise of eight offices, some of which can be taken individually, others as office suites. Offices range in size from 143 sq ft to 1845 sq ft – perfect for small businesses and also those businesses looking to expand.

These new offices are generating alot of interest and we are now in a position to take pre-lettings.  Watch this space for further updates on  progress and new images.

Update 10 April: In the last two weeks we have been a hive of activity, we have built all the internal walls for our new offices and over Easter installed new windows/doors. This week we have a team of plasterers working on the ceilings. It’s great to see such a transformation in such a short space of time.

Update 4 May:   Plastering is now complete and we are  moving on with plumbing.  A few sneaky pics of the offices:

We are exhibiting at the Yorkshire Business Market on Monday 30 April 11am-5pm at the Pavilions of Harrogate, Great Yorkshire Showground.

Visit our stand, enter our prize draw and find out more about our fantastic fibre optic technology, our facilities, expansion and office space.

Why not make the most of the event by attending some of the free seminars taking place during the day.

The business market is free to visitors. 

To find out more about the exhibition visit:

Yorkshire Business Market 2012

Barry Dodd Chairman LEP, Caroline Spelman - Secretary of State and John Weighell Leader NYCC

Caroline Spelman visits the Alan Cryer Furniture showroom

The Secretary of State touring Sofas & Stuff

Ministers tour of Oakwood Park Business Centre

Secretary of State with AMCO Developments

Secretary of State with Carefound Ltd

Caroline Spelman Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) visited Oakwood Park Business Centre a Smart Park on the outskirts of Harrogate during the first of the Government’s new Rural Roadshows.

The Environment Secretary stopped off at the business centre, for the launch of Go ON North Yorkshire, which is part of a national campaign to promote take-up of internet and online services.

Caroline Spelman said: “Getting superfast broadband to rural areas in North Yorkshire will make a vast difference to local people and businesses and how they communicate with the online world. The business centre in Bishop Thornton is a perfect example of how access to broadband can transform Yorkshire businesses.

Alan Cryer, owner of Oakwood Park Business Centre said ‘We are delighted to have been recognised by the Minister as a successful rural Smart Park.  She seemed very impressed by our facilities and the quality of the tenants we are now able to attract due to our complete service offering.  I really feel that the park has everything to offer today’s technology savvy business and we are looking forward to what lies ahead.  We are already expanding our floor space to accommodate small and medium size enterprises, which will be available in the Spring.’

During her visit, the Minister visited some of Oakwood Park’s tenants to see how they have benefitted from the high-speed broadband, which was installed under the Smart Park Initiative.  Representatives from four of the companies, Sofas & Stuff, Take That Ltd, Amco Developments and Carefound spoke with the Minister to reiterate that having the type of connection available at Oakwood Park is vital to their business operations.

Amco Developments, which specialise in commercial property developments recently moved to Oakwood Park from Wetherby.  Paul Heap, Director of Amco Developments said ‘At Oakwood Park we have been able to take full advantage of the locational benefits, the centre has excellent business facilities and the fast broadband allows us to operate effectively, as if we were in a major city centre, but without the city centre costs.’

Caroline Spelman’s visit comes at a time when North Yorkshire is forging ahead in its effort to break down barriers to rural economic growth by supporting the county’s business community and residents.

The Smart Parks project was set up by a partnership between NYnet and York & North Yorkshire Ltd, to demonstrate the economic advantage to the region of offering high-speed, next generation broadband to tenants on business parks, usually only found in city centres.  To date the initiative has connected five business parks across the region with tenants taking advantage of the benefits of high speed broadband.

Operating a business from the spare bedroom at home is nothing new. The internet, cloud computing, along with cheap internet calls from providers such as Skype, are making it much easier for start-up firms to operate more cost effectively in these financially challenging times.

Due to demand, we are now offering a ‘Virtual Office’ service which is a fraction of the cost of renting a real office. The cost of office space, IT infrastructure and staff can be daunting for many new businesses. ‘Virtual Offices’ however, provide an attractive alternative.

Alan Cryer – Business Centre Owner explains “There are many benefits to be had for small businesses, it can help project a professional image and create that much needed ‘good impression’ without costing the earth. Our virtual office mail handling service allows businesses the use of the ‘Oakwood Park Business Centre’ address on all their business cards, stationary, emails, website, directory listings etc. We handle any mail and sign for any packages sent to the business address. We notify our virtual tenants either by email or text as soon as new post arrives. We can either forward the post onto a specified address or they can collect it when it’s convenient.”

“The cost of the package is £37.50 per month plus VAT, as an incentive we are offering one months free rental for 12 month contracts.”

Alan continues “Since our launch we have had a number of local service businesses signup. In the future, as their businesses develop, some may wish to upgrade and take office or storage space, this will be an easy transition, without the need for reprinting stationary and notifying clients.”

One such owner testifies of the value this service provides. “The Oakwood Park address gives our business profile a very polished, professional image which is important to our brand. The service is five star and I would highly recommend Oakwood Park to any small business.”

Another virtual tenant commented, “It has given me a renewed confidence during networking when I hand out my business cards to new contacts. I also feel more enabled to compete with more established competitors when pitching for work, I previously never felt comfortable using my home address on correspondence and on my website.”

We’ve been busy in December setting up one of our upstairs offices as a show office.

The office has it’s very own kitchenette, complete with fridge and sink, leather sofa, telephones and four modern desks with plenty of room for extra office furniture.

The office benefits from four velux windows which open for ventilation and provide views of the open countryside.

We have some great incentives for 2012, contact us for further information.

Alan Cryer stated “When I heard about the Smart Park initiative, I immediately seized the opportunity to bring high speed fibre optic broadband to Oakwood Park as I could see the enormous potential for the park and its tenants. With more and more businesses now relying on decent broadband connections to operate their daily business functions such as uploading and sharing large data files, utilising IP telephony and video conferencing services as well as the increase in use of Cloud services, I knew that Oakwood Park would need to be able to offer this type of connection to stay competitive with office spaces located in the centre of Harrogate.”

One of Oakwood Parks original tenants, Take That, rely heavily on a high speed broadband connection. Matthew Swift, Technical Manager for Take That said “Our entire business is online and therefore having access to a reliable internet connection is crucial. When we arrived at Oakwood Park we were happy with the initial bonded ADSL broadband the park could offer, however its speed restricted how we could use it. For example uploading and downloading large files would saturate the connection and take a considerable amount of time to complete; because of this such tasks had to be scheduled outside working hours. Now that we have access to a more robust and reliable high speed fibre optic connection these tasks can be run on demand without any impact on performance for other internet users. As our company expands and with it the demand on the connection, it’s also reassuring to know we can easily increase the bandwidth to grow with us.”

(Photo: Alan Cryer, Oakwood Park and Julie Barton, NYnet Ltd)

(Photo: Chris Ashby - Manager, Hob Green Hotel, Alan Cryer – Oakwood Park Business Centre, Julian Smith MP for Skipton & Ripon)