Tag: Market Place

Westgrove’s mental health first-aider wins award

Posted on April 5, 2019 by - Uncategorised

Paul Ogden, The Westgrove Group’s first site based Mental Health First-Aider, has won a prestigious industry award.

Paul, who is a mental health champion at Market Place Shopping Centre in Bolton, has won a Revo ACE Award.

The awards programme showcases people and places that achieve excellence customer service.

Paul was presented with his award at an event at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole last night.

Also shortlisted for an award was Handforth Dean Retail Park and St Johns Shopping Centre in Liverpool, both of which Westgrove provides services for.

Westgrove has been working with one of its key partners, Market Place, to champion awareness of mental health.

As part of the service to shoppers the centre was keen to ensure that they identified a mental health first aider, something which is being called for by many companies in the UK to be mandatory as part of the ‘Time to Change’ campaign

Following a very successful mental health awareness week in 2018, Changing Minds, the centre and Westgrove worked together to train over 80 staff in mental health awareness.

Following the training, Paul Ogden, one of the centre’s Guest Service Ambassadors, took on the role as mental health champion.

Paul is now available to offer support and advice to vulnerable customers visiting the centre as well as to the centre’s tenants.

As part of his training, Paul completed a mental health first aid course through St John Ambulance, the nation’s leading first aid charity, and a NCFE CACHE Level 2 certificate qualification in Mental Health Awareness.

Claire McKinley Smith, Managing Director of The Westgrove Group, said: “As a company, we take mental health extremely seriously so we are delighted that Paul has been recognised for all of his hard work to champion mental health in the workplace. We are so proud of him.

“He is equipped with all the skills required to help someone, be it a colleague or a member of the public suffering mental distress, which is all too common an occurrence today”

“Since starting in the new role, Paul has rolled out his training to the Westgrove team onsite and to the tenants within the centre.

“He has already identified a number of vulnerable customers and offered them advice and support. We will be looking to appoint mental health first aiders at many more centres across our UK portfolio during 2019.”

 

Two Westgrove Group cleaners feature in new Jamie Lawson video

Posted on March 20, 2019 by - Uncategorised

Two Westgrove Group cleaners have a cameo role in singer Jamie Lawson’s new video.

Pat Grogan and Bev Jones were filmed during the making of the video to go with Jamie’s new single, The Answer.

The singer, who is signed to Ed Sheeran’s record label, spent the day with Pat and Bev, as well as shoppers on Space Hoppers, at Market Place Shopping Centre in Bolton.

The Westgrove Group provides Market Place with cleaning and security services.

The production company, Sitcom Soldiers, who made the video suggested the Market Place as they knew it was a good light space that would look great on camera.

Jamie is best known for his 2015 hit single ‘Wasn’t expecting that’.

The video features Jamie bouncing around the shopping centre on colourful space hoppers with a number of people. It followed an appeal on Jamie’s social media for a wide range of ‘physically fit’ people to get in touch to be cast for the video.

Jamie said: “It was great to film at Market Place with its stunning architecture, ornate Victorian roof and basement vaults which provided a beautiful and interesting backdrop to our quirky space hopping video concept.

“We wanted to show how love gives you this happy, walking on air, bouncing feeling… so we came up with either trampolining or space hopping. My trampolining skills are not all that good, my space hopping skills on the other hand are second to none! So the idea was that I would bounce around a shopping mall spreading love and having couples join me as I go.

“The staff were amazing, all very kind and helpful, the cleaners were ace and did a great cameo in the video, helping to set the story up.

“The strangest thing was how most customers seemed to walk straight by without batting an eyelid whilst I bounced past them on a space hopper, as though a man on a space hopper in the middle of town is an everyday occurrence…which maybe it is in Bolton!”

Jamie’s new single is called ‘The Answer’, from his new album ‘The Years in Between’ and the accompanying video can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Da1vhbrWIA&feature=youtu.be

Westgrove Group appoints Mental Health First-Aider

Posted on February 15, 2019 by - Uncategorised

We have appointed our first site based Mental Health First-Aider.
We are working with one of our key partners, Market Place Shopping Centre in Bolton, to champion awareness of mental health.
As part of the service to shoppers, the Centre was keen to ensure that they identified a mental health first aider, something which is being called for by many companies in the UK to be mandatory as part of the ‘Time to Change’ campaign
Following a very successful mental health awareness week in 2018, Changing Minds, the Centre and Westgrove worked together to train over 80 staff in mental health awareness.
Following the training, a member of the team, Paul Ogden, one of the Centre’s Guest Service Ambassadors, took on the role as mental health champion.
Paul is now available to offer support and advice to vulnerable customers visiting the Centre as well as to the Centre’s tenants.
As part of his training, Paul completed a mental health first aid course through St John Ambulance, the nation’s leading first aid charity, and a NCFE CACHE Level 2 certificate qualification in Mental Health Awareness.
Nikki Wilson-Cook, Centre Manager of Market Place said: “With mental health in the workplace being such a burning issue nationally, we are proud to be setting an industry precedent with the introduction of our first Mental Health First Aider at Market Place.
“Paul Ogden is equipped with all the skills required to help someone, be it a colleague or a member of the public suffering mental distress, which is all too common an occurrence today.”
The Westgrove Group, based in Warrington, specialises in providing security, cleaning and security services in high footfall destinations from shopping centres and corporate businesses to retail environments.
Claire McKinley Smith, Managing Director of The Westgrove Group, said: “As a company, we take mental health extremely seriously so we are very proud to be one of the first facilities management companies in the UK to appoint a mental health first-aider.
“We are fully on board with the ‘Time to Change’ campaign, supported by many UK businesses, to take mental health more seriously in the work place as we believe that mental health needs to be given the same weight as physical first aid.
“Since starting in the new role, Paul has rolled out his training to the Westgrove team onsite and to the tenants within the Centre.
“He has already identified a number of vulnerable customers and offered them advice and support. We will be looking to appoint mental health first aiders at many more centres across our UK portfolio during 2019.”
The Westgrove Group was founded in 1998 by Group Chairmen Simon Whittle and Steve Fives. Based in Warrington, North West UK, it employs over 1,000 colleagues across the UK and has an annual turnover of £25M.

Paul Ogden, the Westgrove Group’s first Mental Health First-Aider

Customer service award for The Westgrove Group’s team at Market Place Shopping Centre

Posted on October 11, 2018 by - Owner

The Westgrove Group has helped Market Place Shopping Centre in Bolton to scoop an award.

Market Place won the Customer Excellence Award at the Bolton Business Awards. The Centre was praised for its outstanding service and for achieving regular four and five-star ratings on Facebook.

The Westgrove Group delivers cleaning and security for Market Place and also provides the shopping centre’s team with customer service training.

The centre follows Westgrove’s Aspire Service Excellence programme which has been specially designed for shopping centres. Teams work towards attaining different status levels based on their knowledge, engagement and commitment to delivering outstanding service levels.

Earlier this year, Market Place also won the overall Site of the Year Award for delivering Aspire 7* Service Excellence at Westgrove’s Annual Reward & Recognition Awards.

Nikki Wilson-Cook, Centre Manager of Market Place said: “We are absolutely thrilled that Market Place has been recognised at the Bolton Business Awards – winning both the Retailer of The Year award and the Customer Excellence award in partnership with Westgrove Group.

“As a team we are focussed on continually moving Market Place forward to ensure it’s a thriving, fun and entertaining place for people to come and spend some time in Bolton.

“We have a team of really good people with a passion and pride in the job that they do. All our staff strive to give the best possible customer service.”

Market Place has recently undergone a £23 million refurbishment since it was purchased by Inception Holdings Sarl.

Over the last four years, footfall has increased by 45% from 3.8million to 6.5million people and 252 new jobs have been created.

Westgrove Group Managing Director Claire McKinley Smith said: “We are delighted to be working with the team at Market Place to help them deliver brilliant customer service every day.”

The Westgrove Group is one of the largest independent security and cleaning companies in the UK operating alongside the larger PLC’s.