Dorset company makes mouthwatering "Marshmellows"

Catch sight of a stand in a food festival offering Marshmellows for sale and you could be forgiven for thinking that someone had made a spelling mistake. But you’d be wrong!

Gavin and Jackie, the couple behind the Dorset company Miss Marshmellow, decided that the delicious marshmallows that they hand-made were so soft and smooth that they needed their own name, to distinguish them from the commercial 'pink and white ones'. And so Marshmellows were born - marshmallows but mellower!

The inspiration for the business started whilst they were on their honeymoon in Provence in 2011. They loved the local Montelimar Nougat and wanted to be able to produce something similar using Dorset honey and other local ingredients.

After trying out various recipes, and experimenting with sugar technology, Gavin made some flavoured marshmallows that were pronounced 'fantastic' by willing tasters from amongst their family and friends.

Gavin then spent the winter extending the range of flavours, which involved tweaking both the proportions of the ingredients and the details of the process, and finally, in the spring of 2012, 'Miss Marshmellow' was ready to go.

"We are passionate about using only real flavour ingredients in our Marshmellows," Jackie explained, "and there are no artificial colours or preservatives either. Gavin zests and juices our lemons, we use a high cacao chocolate and melt it into our chocolate range and if we can use locally produced fruit, then we do... And the flavours really do taste wonderful."
"The range we make changes seasonally and we love trying out new flavour ideas and combinations, often those suggested by customers."

'Miss Marshmellow's Marshmellows can be found in a few specialist shops, mostly in Dorset, although the couple find that having a stand at food festivals and markets is the most enjoyable way of selling their product. "We like to interact with our customers," Gavin explained. "We always offer lots of samples, because people won't know how good they are, and how different to 'ordinary' marshmallows, unless they taste them, and customer feedback is really important to us in helping us to develop our product."

At the start of this year, Jackie and Gavin were delighted to be chosen by Theo Paphitis, from Dragon's Den, for one of his Small Business Sunday Awards. "It's really helped our business. We've had many more orders online, through our website, and it gave us a boost, personally, to know that he had recognised our business in that way."

"This year," Gavin added, "we are planning to be at many more food festivals and events locally, and we're also moving into the wedding market; our Marshmellows make great wedding favours. A bit further in the future, but within this coming year, we're planning to take our Marshmellows to one of the specialist food fairs in London."

Jackie and Gavin haven’t forgotten their original idea of making nougat, and are still working on it. "Next year we'd like to be able to offer Dorset Nougat as well as Marshmellows...and, of course, we'll continue to work on increasing our range of Marshmellows whilst ensuring that the flavours remain real."

Read some of our other Dorset business start-up stories.

Celebrating 50 years of Dorset's leading commercial property provider

Mickey Jones of DJ Property at Link Park, Weymouth

DJ Property, based in Weymouth, Dorset, is celebrating 50 years in business this summer.

The company, founded by David Jones in 1963, was one of the first located on the Granby Industrial Estate in Weymouth and was responsible for many of the buildings on that site.

Mickey Jones, one of David's three sons and Chief Executive of DJ Property, said this is a very special year for the family business. Mickey said: "Dad was instrumental in the development of the Granby Industrial Estate and probably the main reason why today it is the leading employment site in South Dorset.  For decades he promoted the estate and the businesses based on it, with great success.  The Granby is now the first choice of most businesses looking for premises in South Dorset."

DJ Property is marking their landmark anniversary by launching a competition to design the 'David Jones Memorial' with Weymouth College stonemasonry students. The memorial, in memory of the founder of DJ Property, will be sited at Link Park, Weymouth's newest business park.

"I have been looking forward to including a memorial to Dad’s business achievements at our newest development, Link Park, and it is fitting that this memorial will be completed in DJ Property’s 50th year of business," said Mickey Jones.

He added:  "I really wanted to involve the skills of the students at Weymouth College, and the competition brief was to use materials that played a part in Dad’s life such as Portland stone and steel.

My father spent his early years on Portland, and, from quite humble beginnings, worked hard to build DJ Property into the largest provider of commercial property in South Dorset.  DJ Property remains a very successful family business and we work hard to continue to invest in the local economy and its people."

To find out more about DJ property visit their website by clicking here.

Read some of our Dorset business start-up stories here. 

New magazine delivers luxury lifestyle across rural Dorset

A new luxury lifestyle magazine for Dorset has launched this month, combining the best in quality country living with stylish city dwelling. 

The magazine, ‘Village’ is currently distributed to local villages in and around Piddle Valley and Blackmore Vale in Dorset. It makes no secret of being aimed at affluent residents, being delivered direct to homes with a value of £850k or more.

The publication is the product of collaboration between strategic marketing agency Cre8ive Wisdom and advertising sales and distribution specialist, Mogul Media.

Publisher of ‘Village’ and Managing Director of Cre8ive Wisdom, Neil Armstrong, explains:

“There was a real gap in the market for a luxury lifestyle magazine aimed at people who live in the Dorset countryside, but also still have one toe in the city.

Mogul Media MD Danny Nash and I pooled our substantial publishing and distribution experience to create our first issue. We’re delighted with the positive reception we’ve received and hope to make the magazine monthly, with different editions in different parts of Dorset as soon as we can.”

Mixing the very best of opulent rural living and city trends, the first issue features Julia Bradbury as its cover girl with an exclusive interview and competition by the ‘Countryfile’ star.

The restaurant review section highlights gastronomic delights, both rurally and in London. The first issue features The Priory restaurant in Wareham, specialising in locally-sourced dishes, and the prestigious London restaurant, The Ivy.

The fashion-oriented ‘Lookbook’ section includes an interview with top London designer Maria Grachvogel while the ‘Treasure Trove’ article looks at jewellery designer Tessa Metcalfe.

Village magazine may be picked up from quality restaurants, hotels and other establishments in Dorset.

For more information about 'Village', or to view the latest edition online, visit www.villagemags.co.uk.

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Dorset's largest fish merchants promotes Great Dorset Seafood Campaign

Customers of Samways Fish Merchants of Bridport will now be able to trace their seafood purchases back to where they originated, in a scheme to support Dorset Wildlife Trust's campaign for Great Dorset Seafood.

Every time a customer opens their delivery of fresh Dorset seafood from Samways, they'll find a label promoting the Great Dorset Seafood campaign. They'll be reminded of the campaign's aims, to encourage a return to a healthy and productive marine environment through sustainable, low impact fishing methods.

Samways have pledged to label all seafood supplied by fishers working a Dorset Port and approved by the campaign, demonstrating provenance and traceability to their customers.

Mark Machin, a trained chef from Samways sales and marketing team, said: “Samways supply hundreds of customers, ranging from village pubs serving Lyme Bay crab sandwiches to Michelin stared restaurants cooking hand dived scallops. 

The Great Dorset Seafood campaign fits in really well with Samways’ other work, contributing toward a sustainable fishery here in Dorset demonstrating some amazing produce on our doorstep from Lyme Bay”.

Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Great Dorset Seafood campaign, established in 2011, seeks to restore the health and productivity of our sea through choices, sourcing and information.

Peter Tinsley, Living Seas Manager at Dorset Wildlife Trust, said: “This partnership shows we are standing up for local inshore fishermen and for local marine wildlife by putting our seal of approval to seafood that is fresh and locally caught, using more selective capture methods. These fishing practices are sensitive to the environment and provide high quality seafood, so it’s good for you and it’s good for Dorset and its wildlife.”

This month also sees the annual revision of the Great Dorset Seafood Fish Guide and comprehensive online consumer and retailer guide on a variety of seafood species and fishing methods in Dorset.  Seafood that gets the green light includes mackerel and black seabream caught using rod and line; crabs and lobster caught using pots; diver-picked scallops; and herring and sole caught using static nets.

Further details on the Great Dorset Seafood campaign and Samways Fish Merchants can be found online at greatdorsetseafood.org.uk or Samwaysfish.com. 

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Dorset college boosts business leadership potential

Caroline Brewer, of Powerful Peformance,with Budmouth Interns

Budmouth College, in Weymouth, is creating The Leadership Academy to help local businesses ensure a thriving and successful future. 

A partnership between the college's groundbreaking Centre of Excellence and local leadership consultancy, Powerful Performance, The Leadership Academy allows firms to accelerate the progress of their talented people.

This initiative will also involve the students, with the aim of generating a two-way win-win exchange of ideas, skills and understanding.

Marcel Ciantar, Director of the Centre of Excellence at Budmouth, is very enthusiastic. “We are incredibly excited about this programme. It is the first of its kind in the area and will lead the way in both supporting local business to thrive by developing a strong leadership culture, whilst also preparing and developing our future entrepreneurs and business leaders. We have a wealth of talent in Dorset and it is time to really engage all of our strengths to really harness our potential.”

Local business leaders who recognise the critical importance of developing leadership talent in their organisations will be able to sponsor existing or aspiring managers to attend a series of short workshops being held each term on site at Budmouth’s Centre of Excellence. Each term will build on the previous one and each group will be made up of a mix of business representatives and A Level students to encourage a melting pot of experience and fresh thinking.

The ultimate aim is to support local businesses in developing and retaining their talented people and develop leaders who are better able to connect with their workforce, inspire commitment and create sustained high performance.

The first step in making this happen is to attend an introductory seminar for business leaders being held at Budmouth CEIL on Thursday 14th March, to find out more about this exciting local opportunity.

Contact Lynn Toman today on 01305 830505 to book your place or for further information.

6 Business uses for Twitter

1. Talk to suppliers.  It can be a very fast route into the customer service team of your larger suppliers, such as utility providers. Twitter, or other social networks, can also provide an alternative communication channel with smaller suppliers, particularly sole traders who may find it the easiest option when on the move.

2. Travel news updates. Twitter is a great source of real-time news about road closures, rail delays and problems at airports. Use the Twitter search function to look up the road name or place that you need information about.

3. Promote special offers. Many small firms run special deals, and even giveaways, on Twitter. It's one way of adding new followers or promoting deals at very short notice.

4. Find out what’s going on at an event. An increasing number of conferences, exhibitions and other big events are using a common hashtag to connect all the tweets. If you follow the tweets using that hashtag, the many tweeters using it will give you a great feel for what’s going on.

5. Get answers to questions. Twitter gives you access to hundreds of thousands of people, through various levels of followers. If you have a specific question, there’s a good chance you can get an answer through Twitter, or at least be put in touch with someone who can help.

6. Build a network of expert contacts. Within minutes of opening a Twitter account, you could be following a host of specialists in your chosen field. Using the search function, and then seeing who follows who, you can discover experts from across the world.

By Andrew Knowles, social media consultant and copywriter, based in Dorset.

Visit our other business tips page for more valuable information.

Looking for more Twitter tips? Take a look at these:

Become really effective on Twitter with your 5-Day Twitter Action Plan 

5 Reasons why posting links in Twitter doesn't work

5 Reasons why you're not getting more followers on Twitter

Bournemouth start-up is to challenge the ecommerce giants

Two Dorset entrepreneurs, Cas Paton and Simon Lennon, are launching a brand new online marketplace in May, helped by their team of four drawn from the local area.

OnBuy intends to be a simple and easy to use online marketplace, offering shoppers competitive prices on a range of products; from big-name technology giants to hand-made arts and crafts. It plans to offer its sellers lower fees than its major competitors and is aiming to become one of Europe’s leading online marketplaces.

It’s a hugely ambitious project, but one that the pair are incredibly excited about. Simon Lennon said: "In all honesty I expect OnBuy to be able to become the number one retail platform in the UK and we have our sights on the US next. Our biggest selling point over our competitors is the ease of use, making it simpler and easier for the seller to both use the site and find exactly what they are looking for”.

Although the pair are hugely enthusiastic and confident in OnBuy at the moment, it hasn’t all been plain sailing. Lennon came up with the embryonic concept initially while he was studying for his BSc in Computing from Bournemouth University, building a simple eCommerce platform for his dissertation.

These ideas then grew into what is today called OnCommerce; the eCommerce solution that lies behind the OnBuy website that the public and sellers will see and use when it is launched in three months time.

Lennon explained: "The biggest issue, in all honesty, has been resources as we've essentially tried to take on Magento Solutions, who are a multi-million dollar company with a 200 man development team, with just me working on our concept! Considering what we have I think we did pretty well, but it’s taken a lot longer than we originally planned to get it all moving.”

Taking on the big-boys doesn’t daunt the pair; as they are making their début onto a marketplace which has some of the world’s leading companies at its forefront, such as Amazon and eBay.

Their confidence comes mainly from their total belief in the new platform, Paton’s entrepreneurial streak and Lennon’s background in computing. They have also benefited from investment from Hampshire based IT provider, Centerprise International which has helped the concept develop by considerably boosting their resources.

Paton and Lennon own OnRecycle, a product price comparison site for mobile phones and gadgets.  They are hoping that in the future the two companies will complement each other; as consumers purchase items on OnBuy they can recycle and help fund their purchases by recycling their old gadgets with OnRecycle.

They are already building up a catalogue of sellers ready for the May launch of OnBuy. If you have a product you'd like to be considered for inclusion, get in touch with Ces Paton.

To find out more about the project, whose website is under construction, visit their Facebook Page. They are also on Twitter as @Onbuy_UK

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