Local school collaboration a recipe for success for oven cleaning company

OvenGleamers is one of the UKs largest oven cleaning companies, with local franchises across the country. Set up in 2004 by founder Graham Rogers and later, his wife Catherine, this family run business aims to provide the best ‘Oven Gleam’ for customers’ cookers, of any size.

From a single man-with-a-van operation, the business has steadily grown and now boasts 30 franchises across the UK, with three more opening up very soon. 

With the business growing, Graham and Catherine were keen to upskill their existing workforce and find out more about apprenticeships, as well as explore avenues to help support and expand their business. After seeing an email promotion, they were put in touch with Julia Gurr, Business Skills Advisor at Business West, via the Workforce for the Future Programme. 

“Working with Julia has really opened my eyes to the sort of opportunities, courses and support out there”, explained Catherine. “We explored apprenticeships with some of our current workforce and whilst it didn’t work out this time, we will definitely be looking into apprenticeships again in the near future, now that we understand the options available to us. Julia has also helped signpost us to other forms of support and has been great at providing us with clear, concise information about what is out there for organisations like ours, which is sometimes hard to find, and, as a small business, you don’t always have the time to go out and look for.”

Catherine and Graham were also keen to work on a bit of a different project, in which they could also give back to the community, with an idea that they have been thinking about for a while.

“It’s our 18th birthday this year, so now that we’ve reached adulthood as a business, we wanted to mark the occasion. We’ve had the idea of creating a cookbook for a few years, full of customer recipes, which we could then sell to support charities and food banks in the local area. It’s a cause I’m very passionate about and when I mentioned it to Julia, she suggested working with a nearby school as a way of making it a larger, community project. Due to her existing connections, the school jumped on board and the project quickly started gaining pace.”

Catherine launched the project in May and asked students at St Katherine’s School in Pill, as well as their own customers, to get involved, by sending in a personal recipe for inclusion in the book, with a picture of their creation. They are hoping to sell the book from October and proceeds will go towards the Square Food Foundation in the city.

“Once we have collated all the recipes, we hope to work with the school again, or a local college to help design the cookbook, and promote it via social media and PR. I want to give the schools and colleges a fun project to get involved with, but also make connections with local education providers and show students that companies need staff with those sorts of skills, to help with various aspects of their business.”

As well as this big project, OvenGleamers have taken advantage of the range of events held by Business West via the Workforce for the Future programme, including podcast masterclasses, and peer to peer events.

“Having the chance to learn new skills as a business, whilst also having the opportunity to network with like-minded people and discuss certain challenges you all face has been great and I would recommend it to anyone.”

“Having Julia to speak to, is like having a business mentor – she’s been absolutely brilliant.  She has come up with loads of ideas to help our business, has thought outside the box on how to help us raise our profile and has opened doors for us, especially by connecting businesses with schools and colleges, which I believe is really important. Her support has been invaluable.”

To find out more about OvenGleamers, you can visit their website.

To find out more about how Business West can help via the Workforce for the Future Programme visit our webpage.

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Business West is delivering Workforce for the Future in collaboration with other partners and the West of England Combined Authority.

For more information on Workforce for the Future, please visit the West of England Growth Hub. The Growth Hub is the West of England Combined Authority’s dedicated business support service which offers free, one-to-one advice and guidance for SMEs.

The West of England Workforce for the Future programme has received £4m of funding from the European Social Fund as part of the 2014-2020 European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme in England. The Department for Work and Pensions (and in London the intermediate body Greater London Authority) is the Managing Authority for the England European Social Fund programme. Established by the European Union, the European Social Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support skills development, employment and job creation, social inclusion and local community regenerations. For more information visit: https://www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding.