Keighley – Big Future for Small Businesses
by Craven and Valley Life
Keighley is helping to lead the way in helping big and small businesses to work together for the town’s prosperity.
The town is once again supporting Small Business Saturday, which this year is on 5 December, with a series of events in the Airedale Centre (pictured).
Keighley’s efforts are in conjunction with the Healthy High Streets initiative in which national companies including Boots, the Cooperative Group, Marks and Spencer, Santander, EE and Greggs are cooperating with local town teams to develop retail activities. Keighley was one of the pilot towns in the initiative and is now in its second year with the scheme.
Healthy High Streets will be part of Small Business Saturday, which this year in Keighley will involve activities at the Airedale Centre.
Airedale Centre manager Steve Seymour said: “Healthy High Streets involves bigger businesses helping smaller ones with matters such as promotion and window display, which they may not have the resources to do themselves. It shows that retailing isn’t just about individual profit but how to ensure the whole town benefits from a sustainable income.”
HHS initiatives include making landlords deal with empty and unsightly property issues, enabling high profile events to increase footfall, encouraging pop-up shops and markets, helping to improve customer service and providing expert help to promote high streets.
Nationally, last year’s Small Business Saturday, the third year of the event, was a runaway success, with a reported 16.5 million people shopping in a small independent business on the day; a 20% increase in footfall, or 2.7 million more shoppers.
Two out of three people were aware of the campaign, there were more than 3.5 million Facebook views and #SmallBizSatUK was trending at number one all day on 6 December 2014. Hundreds of MPs and 55 per cent of local authorities supported the campaign.
Official figures reveal that small businesses are responsible for some 50 per cent of private sector turnover and approximately 60 per cent of private sector jobs.
