Hello Everyone

I wanted to let you know about the offers that The Kent County Show are making on ticket sales for this years show.

If you buy your tickets in advance from the website you can make huge savings and have a great day out for far less. For instance, a family ticket (2 adults and 4 children) would normally pay £80 on the gate on Friday and £60 on the Saturday or Sunday - but pre-paid family tickets are just £35. Makes sense to think ahead, doesn't it?

Also, did you know, that if you are a carer for someone that you bring to the show - you can get in free!

Have a look at at the site for the full details.

KENT COUNTY SHOW TICKETS

The Sandwich Celebration in Sandwich Kent

Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th May 2012

The Sandwich Celebration is a two day event to mark the 250th anniversary of the legend of the sandwich and the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, John Montagu.

The celebration will coincide with the British Sandwich Week organised by the British Sandwich Association.

There will be Food, Music,Tipis, Renactments, a teddy bears picnic, a 18th Century Concert and much more.

see for more details

http://www.sandwichevents.org.uk/Sandwich-Celebration-sandwich-events.shtml#programme

Whilst unemployment is at a all time high for young people, one local graduate’s business concept appears to be perfectly pitched.

Canterbury Tipis has launched itself as a new business providing Authentic Native American Tipis to hire in Kent. Run by graduate Amie Butler, Canterbury Tipis caters for a variety of different markets from parties and weddings to festivals and workshop spaces. A far cry from conventional marquee hire, Canterbury Tipis offers its customers something different to the conventional use of outdoor space.

“For our customers there is a keen sense to be seen as different, and our Tipis make a dramatic statement for outside events” said owner Amie Butler. When asked what influenced her decision to start the business, she replied “being a recent graduate in these tough times it appeared my only option was to create my own business and offer a service which stood out from the crowd”.

Canterbury Tipis provide various sized Tipis and offer delivery, set up, take down and event support as well as authentic furnishings and a bespoke catering service. Owner Amie Butler states “ We want to make every event memorable and special for our customers. Canterbury Tipis have been used as a space for Children’s Workshops, Fashion Shoots and for Festivals. Tipis have proven to be very popular choice”.

www.canterburytipis.co.uk

Limited Edition Cool Britannia Collection is now ready for ordering - celebrate in style! Hurry, limited stock available.

www.hollybunks.co.uk

Well, our first birthday has come and gone.  We had a great time – a visit from the Lord Mayor of Canterbury, a lovely feature in April’s Canterbury Index, a picture in the Whitstable Gazette, “mentions” elsewhere and many good wishes from our social networking friends, suppliers and fellow independent businesses. We’re grateful to all of them.

To mark the occasion, we launched our new home-made pink lemonade at a “1st birthday” price of £1.   It was an instant hit and will join apple mojitos as a “special” for the summer.  Meanwhile, our hot, spiced apple may have to stay on the Specials Board for some time yet, judging by the requests to keep it there.

We had a lot of fun with a very special offer of free chocolate to the first ten people to come in on the day and say “Happy Birthday” – with a bonus for people who sang.  Which they did!

Now it’s Easter which means that “Supplier of the Month” has to be The Kentish Chocolate Company which good-naturedly moved heaven and earth to bring us chocolate chickens, bunnies and eggs.  Working with this sort of Kent-based start-up, which puts all the value into high-quality products and keeps its packaging costs down, is exactly what we’re about. And it means that customers are amazed by the value-for-money on such great-looking gifts – the packaging may be minimal, but the effect is still chic.

Looking ahead, we’re moving steadily from coffee and hot chocolate into juices and smoothies.  Our next milestone will be our 5,000^th smoothie.  There’ll be a bonus basket of local produce for the person who buys it – and we’ll be doing a public count down when we’re getting near.

And finally, having started with facebook and twitter, and followed on with foursquare, we’ve launched ourselves on pinterest  – early days but it’s certainly easy to use and a nice way of expressing the brand’s “personality”.  We sometimes wonder whether the virtual world will eclipse the physical one day – but then we remember that using fresh produce to create products in front of our customers will mean that we’ll always be very grounded indeed. We'd be interested to hear others' experiences.

www.63harbourstreet.co.uk

www.facebook.com/63harbourstreet

www.twitter.com/63harbourst

http://pinterest.com/63harbourstreet/pins/

https://foursquare.com/v/63-harbour-street--juices-smoothies-coffee--more/4ef9b2c8a17cdc15b3e542f6

Digital Aspirations are a South East England based design agency specialising in a wide range of Digital Design solutions. We can design high quality, low cost websites, high quality 2D / Graphic Designs for Print and Computer as well as 3D design and animation. We also specialise in user interface design and signage design. We have a large portfolio of work, including signage designs and user interfaces for Casinos and Live gaming.

Based in Kent, we believe in keeping business local. There are many design agencies in London, but these are high cost and often inaccessible to the local businesses that make up the South East.

If you want a competitive quote, to discuss your project, or to even brain storm about your ideas, call today for a chat and we will be more than happy to see how we can help!

www.digitalaspirations.co.uk

La Bouche - now open for just 3 weeks - has been fully booked every weekend since opening - with most evenings and lunchtimes being full also.

"We're often having to turn away 10-15 people each day who just walk in and would like to eat with us" commented Front of House Manager, Natalia George. "Weekends have been booked up 3-4 days in advance"

We'd like to thank the people of Deal and surrounding areas for their support, and positive feedback on review sites such as tripadvisor and qype. Take a look at some of the reviews here http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g503900-d2593735-Reviews-La_Bouche-Deal_Kent_England.html

Take a look at some pictures and current news from La Bouche on the website here http://www.la-bouche.co.uk/page5.htm

Please do come and see for yourself very soon.

Company provides a professional computer repair service to small businesses and home users. The service is designed to be fast and cost effective, helping clients to get back on the road from any computer issues.

for further information please visit: http://dkcomptech.co.uk

or send your enquiry to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

La Bouche - Deal's newest restaurant - is pleased to announce our first opening weekend !

Formerly the Lord Clyde public house, this seafront establishment on The Strand in Deal has been completley re-modelled and refurbished, to deliver a comfortable and welcoming bistro style French restaurant.

Owner Mr Pete May said "It has taken twice as long and twice the amount of cash we had planned to refurbish the old pub, but we are finally at a stage where we can open.

"This is the realisation of a 35 year dream, and to have my family as part of this venture makes me immensly proud."

La Bouche is commited to delivering a quality french style cuisine from locally sourced produce, at great prices - and is open now for both bookings and walk-in customers.

La Bouche can be contacted here www.la-bouche.co.uk

Thanks to www.made-in-kent.co.uk for your support

I don't know if you are aware of us, but KentVenues.co.uk is a relatively new website which lists venues and businesses in Kent. We are one of Kent's fastest growing websites with an ever growing presence on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook and already we reach anything up to 10,000 potential customers monthly.

The beauty of listing your venue or business with us is that not only will we put your listing in anything up to 10 places on KentVenues.co.uk, but your listing will also rank high up on Google when somebody searches for you or a venue/business like yours in Kent. Click here to see an example of one of our business listings ranking 1st. This helps if you either don't have a website or if you do have one, but it doesn't rank on the first page of Google.

Your business listing is essentially a full page advert and unlinke offline advertising, is totally measurable. We can provide stats on how many views your listing has had and how many clicks to your website (if applicable) we have generated for you. It will contain everything a potential customer would need to know about you and even includes an enquiry form which gets sent straight to your email address!! Don't worry, we won't charge any commission on bookings unless you are a venue looking to feature in our wedding section.

The cost for a business listing is only £49.99 or £59.99 with a link to your website, NOT for a month's advertising but for a listing for 12 months!!

For a short presentation on our business listings follow this link - kv_businesslistingsexplained.pdf

Contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to get involved!!

Thanks for looking, Paul - KV

63 Harbour Street - nearly one year old and going strong!

Since 63 Harbour Street’s juicer first whirled into life last April, much has happened.  We've blended over 4,000 smoothies, used bushels of fruit and vegetables (all locally grown or locally sourced) and forged some great relationships with Kent producers.

Our suppliers include Whitstable's greengrocers Hedges, baker My Goodness and Olivesrgood4u.  Further afield we work with The Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Company, Little Stour Orchard, which answered our appeal for “single-estate” apples at harvest-time, Jemima's Kitchen and The Kentish Chocolate Company.  Like us, many of these businesses are in their first year.  We're finding our way together and sharing knowledge and skills where we can.

Another discovery has been social networking:  We like creating "limited-edition" juices and smoothies and we buy our products in small, fresh batches.  Twitter and facebook are great for letting people know what's new and we've found producers through them too.  It's a quick, personal approach that seems to work well for a "micro-business".

Some other things we've found:

- Lots of dogs love apples. "A smoothie for me and an apple for him please"  Well, it was news to us...

- Whitstable attracts a truly international crowd. We've had customers from all over the world - literally - in our first ten months. They appreciate really fresh products.  And visitors from coffee-growing countries have a notably professional interest in coffee - the blend, the grind, the Gaggia...

- We have Whitstable regulars too, which is great.  We hoped we would appeal to the resident community as well as to visitors and that seems to be the case.  Loyalty cards are booming...

View Kent Wildllife Trust's range of gift ideas for Christmas from sponsoring a dormouse for £10 to a Highland cow at £30. You can also dedicate trees and sponsor precious wildlife habitat.  Visit www.ethicalgiftideas.org.uk for more information.

You could also buy a gift membership to the Trust for any wildlife enthusiasts from as little as £28 for a year. Visit www.kentwildlifetrust.org.uk now or telephone 01622 662012.

Both ideas are a fantastic way to do your christmas shopping and help Kent's wildlife at the same time.

The Challenge

In the ice cream business, it's hard to stand out from the crowd. At events one hears the words 'Oh, not another ice cream company' and when ringing potential customers, the mention of ice cream switches many chefs off; this is because they have not been able to access exceptional quality ice cream as good as they can make it - until now!

Taywell believes it can make ice cream and sorbet better than any chef, including Michelin-starred ones, and has set out to educate the foodservice sector on how good the best is and how much better value it is from the company than having the pastry chef spend two hours making it.

It's the Taste That Counts

Once a chef has tasted Taywell's ice creams and sorbets, all produced using local milk, cream and fruits from Kent & Sussex, they are hooked. Hundreds of restaurants, pubs and catering divisions are now using the products with more than 100 flavours available for immediate delivery.

As the only company in Kent manufacturing ice cream using the correct ingredients that include egg yolks for texture and binding the products together, it boasts that all ingredients contain no artificial additives, colours, stabilisers or bulking agents. Both the ice cream and sorbets are very rich in taste and, although it is one of the most expensive products chefs can buy, it requires nearly half proportions to be served, thereby increasing margins. It even caters for diabetics, coeliacs and the lactose intolerant.

Ice Cream of Choice

Gradually, it is becoming the chef's ice cream of choice across Kent, Surrey, Sussex and London and those who used to make their own are now serving Taywell's finest. With 10 Great Taste Awards, one business award and numerous mentions in magazines across all these counties or on the radio or television, the company is rapidly expanding its manufacturing capacity to cater for the discerning buyer.

It's offer of making any flavour for any chef is frequently taken up and all sorts of strange flavours have been created and delivered to clients. With its ability to make up to 20 different flavours in a single day, it is hard for competitors to get anywhere close to this level of service and its guaranteed next-day delivery service is a winner.

For those that have not heard of the company, its location opposite The Hop Farm at Paddock Wood is exceptionally easy to find and its website http://www.taywell.co.uk contains a detailed list of flavours and links to its appearance on BBC1's 'The Apprentice' and BBC South East News. All enquiries should be directed to 01892 835555 or emailed to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .