Latest updates and stories from Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce and its Members

For Anna Crawte, Director of Education, and Paul Edmond, Chief Financial Officer at HEART Academies Trust, success isn't measured solely by exam results or league tables. It's measured by the opportunities children leave with, the confidence they gain and the barriers they no longer face.

That belief has shaped HEART Academies Trust since it was established in 2017. What began with four schools has grown into a family of six schools across Bedford, united by a shared ambition to give every child the very best start in life.

For Lorna Leonard, helping businesses grow has always been about much more than finance.

As Founder and Managing Director of Leonard Business Services, she has spent more than a decade supporting business owners, helping them make better decisions, build stronger foundations and plan confidently for the future.

From launching a business in the wake of redundancy to building a growing facilities management company rooted in purpose, people and community, Right FM’s journey is anything but ordinary.

Founded in early 2023 by Venesa Coodien and her business partner Stuart Robertson, Right FM has quickly established itself as a flexible, values-led provider of facilities management and compliance services across Bedfordshire and beyond. But for Venesa, success has never just been about growth - it has always been about doing things the right way.

For nearly two decades, Emma Smith has been helping businesses bring their brands to life through promotional products and corporate gifts. As the founder of Creative Merchandise, she has built a trusted client base by combining industry expertise with a refreshingly personal approach to service.

For many organisations, branded merchandise and corporate gifts sit in the “nice-to-have” category, until you need them quickly, your event deadline moves, or a delivery goes wrong and someone has to fix it fast.

That’s where Emma Smith, Founder of Creative Merchandise, comes in.

For the Aegis Group of Companies, growth has never been simply about getting bigger - it’s been about ambition, innovation, and purpose. What began as a single security and facilities management business has evolved into a diverse group of brands operating across multiple sectors and international markets.

Today, Aegis is driving forward with a clear vision: to deliver exceptional service, nurture talent, and make a positive impact both locally and globally.

For over 42 years, Wenta has been helping to transform the lives of entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses.  As one of the UK’s largest not-for-profit enterprise agencies, Wenta’s mission is simple but powerful: inclusive support making it easier and greener to start and run a successful business.

We spoke with Jennifer Condon, Director of Services and Engagement at Wenta, to explore how their work delivers real client benefits, what sets their offer apart, and how ambitious plans around innovation, sustainability and new spaces such as The DomeWorks will shape the future of business support.

After nearly 30 years specialising in capital allowances and tax relief, Louise Barth, Founder of Barth Consulting, has become a trusted advisor to businesses looking to protect cashflow and keep more money in their organisations – at a time when every pound matters.

Louise began her career as a chartered surveyor, working on major construction projects including Vauxhall Motors and specialist London schemes such as the Science Museum. It was during these early years that she first encountered capital allowances; an area few people understood at the time.

For Paul Bowen-James BEM, Founder and Chief Executive of Kids in Action, a charity created to give children with disabilities a place where they feel safe, supported, and free to be themselves, this charity is not just an organisation. It's a lifeline, a community, and for many, a second home.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Kids in Action has grown from a small youth club of 8 - 10 children into a thriving, inclusive community supporting 450 - 500 service users every week. Today, it is one of Bedfordshire’s most remarkable charities; built not from strategy documents or funding pipelines, but from lived experience, compassion, and an unwavering determination to make sure no child feels alone.

As Essential Workwear returns as Headline Sponsor for the SME Bedfordshire Business Awards 2026, Founder and Managing Director George Georgiou reflects on a year defined by progress, resilience, and an ever-stronger commitment to the community that shaped the business.

For nearly three decades, Essential Workwear has been a proud Bedfordshire business, growing from a one-man operation to a nationally respected provider of high-quality branded workwear. Today, they supply businesses of all sizes across the UK, from sole traders to large national employers, delivering everything from branded PPE and uniforms to premium workwear from leading global brands.

When two different strengths come together, the results can be powerful. That’s exactly what happened when Stimpsons Eves, a name with over 100 years of history in Bedfordshire, merged with the ambitious, forward-looking Venture Commercial Partners.

Trading under the Stimpsons Eves brand, the Chartered Surveyors and Commercial Property Consultants firm is entering a new era: carving out a future in the commercial property market that combines heritage and trust with innovation and drive.

When Dr. Hema Dhingra joined Ballard & Tucker Dental Practice in 2003, she had no idea she was beginning a journey that would see her transform the practice into one of the most acclaimed dental centres in the region.

Now, over two decades later, Biggleswade Dental Centre has grown into a 16-dentist, multi-specialist clinic and was recently crowned overall winner at the 2025 SME Bedfordshire Business Awards.

For Tyler Pickford, CEO of Luton-based taxi firm GoCars, resting on your laurels is never an option. “You can’t just sit idly by, you have to remain proactive, continuously adapting to change” he says. And this is perhaps why his business, with its roots in two well established family-run concerns that merged 15 years ago, is now the town’s biggest private hire and taxi service.

For smaller businesses with little or no in-house HR expertise, the function can seem both daunting and costly. But Helen Stocker of HR Delivered, sees this in a very different way.

With her four-strong team, she has built a successful business – recognised as a double finalist in this year’s SME Bedfordshire Business Awards – by making HR skills accessible, affordable, and transparent for businesses with anything from 5 to 50 employees.

When Phil Solomon was working in the pressured world of recruitment, he saw the good, the bad, and the ugly of sales behaviour. But one company he worked for got it so right that it has influenced him throughout his career.

Move on a few years (and a few roles), and Phil is now the regional specialist for international organisation Sales Geek, which delivers sales training, part-time (fractional) Sales Director services, and some training that comes at absolutely no charge.

When a business does what it says on the tin, you know you’re in for a strong, clear proposition, and when we spoke to Bedford-based business owner Nathan Jacobs recently, he proved the point admirably.

At a mere 19 years old, Nathan is at the helm of Doorstep Promotions, which specialises in leaflet distribution and design, enabling local businesses to reach potential prospects in their own homes.

But this is leaflet distribution with some clever twists that bring it bang up to date, as we discovered in this member interview.

Here at Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce, strategic partnerships are key to connecting businesses to organisations that can support their growth, and enabling those same businesses to give back to those same organisations, for the greater good of the communities we live in.

Mutual benefit equals effective cooperation – and our latest strategic partnership with The Bedford College Group, launched on 1^st February, is very much a case in point.

The best ideas often come from the realisation there’s a better way of doing the things you can’t do without – and the idea behind Greenwood Drones was no exception.

The business’s founder, 21 year-old Harvey Greenwood, saw there was an opportunity to use drones, rather than scaffolding or cherry-pickers, to survey roofs for his father’s roofing company – and Greenwood Drones was born.

When it comes to branding, the team at Dunstable-based Essential Workwear will tell you that quality, everywhere, is everything. From a facemask to a hi-vis jacket, to a smart office shirt, workwear is, in the words of founder George Georgiou, “a living advert for your company” – and the quality of the branding reflects the values of the business itself.

We were lucky enough to get some time in George’s busy schedule recently to learn more about what Essential Workwear does, the company’s successes and ambitions for the future, and – not least – its involvement as Headline Sponsor in the 2025 SME Bedfordshire Business Awards.

“We strongly believe HR should add value to the business and help it grow.” When you hear a statement like that, you know the conversation will be about more than job specs, contracts, and pay grades, and at Haynes-based Resourceful People Group (RPG), they take HR far beyond this.

We caught up with Director Steve Botterill recently to learn more about how the company came into being, what it delivers, and how these services can benefit businesses of all sizes – particularly those in the throes of planning or executing change.

Copybox Document Systems (Copybox) is a recognised provider of a range of comprehensive services and support for printers and multi-functional photocopiers, including cost-effective rental and lease packages, installation and repair services and on-going technical support.  Their customers include all types of businesses, schools, charities, and other workplaces in and around Bedfordshire.

A family run business, with father Paul Kamlesh and daughter Tanika Paul at the helm, Copybox has built an excellent reputation for providing a managed print service that is flexible and cost-effective.

Sustainability is a big concept – but helping organisations to get there one step at a time is something we at the Chamber are absolutely committed to.

And it’s member businesses like Sommers Waste Solutions (SWS) that make this journey possible – through innovation, education, and services that are flexible enough to accommodate every customer’s differing needs.

For many of us, the thought of managing the intricacies of a fibre broadband rollout and organising wayleaves or running organisational change programmes probably sounds like a colossal headache.

But for Bedfordshire-based Mantralis, these are just two examples of the project and programme management challenges they relish – and they use their skills to not only deliver positive commercial results, but social value as well.

Taking a business from strength to strength is an achievement worthy of recognition, and for Darren King, Managing Director of Shefford-based fire safety specialist Kings Fire, winning the London Luton Airport High Growth Business category in our recent SME Bedfordshire Business Awards delivered exactly that.

When we caught up with Darren recently, he said: “The awards gave us massive exposure, and they inspire confidence for people to pick the phone up or email and ask for our help.”

Say ‘data protection’ or ‘privacy’ to most businesspeople, and their eyes roll. They know it’s important, they know they need to be on it, but it is so complex.

But say those same words to Andy Chesterman, Managing Director of Bedford-based PrivacyHelper, and his eyes light up – for he’s got a way of simplifying things that businesses will want to know about.

Plain Talking HR’s website spells its message out loud and clear. The hazard sign top and centre bears the legend ‘No Jargon!’

And for the last 15 years, this Luton-based HR specialist has been flying the flag for plain talking and simplicity across clients ranging in size from a handful of employees to 200, in industries as diverse as construction (a key focus), medicine, dentistry, accountancy, and many others.

We previously caught up with Steve Blythe, at Luton-based electronics manufacturer and Beds Chamber member Jaltek, back in 2022. So when we interviewed him again last month he had much to report – and the company’s platinum sponsorship of the forthcoming SME Bedfordshire Business Awards was high on the list!

Currently celebrating its 40^th year, social enterprise Wenta is a remarkable resource for anybody considering starting a business, already running a business, or looking to grow their business.

Dispensing free, impartial business advice, CPD accredited skills training, templates and toolkits, accompanied by free hot-desking facilities, affordable workspace, sustainability advice and access to specialist early stage growth support and funding, Wenta is the helping hand every new and aspiring small business needs to know about – and through its sponsorship of the SME Bedfordshire Business Awards, it’s determined to get the message ‘out there’.

One supplier, one invoice, one request – not for nothing is this the mantra of Luton-headquartered Aegis Support Services.

The company prides itself on being a one-stop-shop for all manner of services that protect people, buildings, and assets – from security and facilities management to hygiene and training, and much more besides.

It was as a best business practices mentor in the early days of his career at Unilever, and later with Panasonic in Japan and Siemens AG globally, that Unisnacks CEO Hyder gained expertise in the areas that would underpin the start-up success of the company he now leads: food production and distribution, and Eastern food culture.

In 2006, Hyder envisioned Unisnacks to - as he puts it - “bring some excitement into the snack business by putting East Asian food in your corner shops, not just speciality stores. Global foods, locally!”

For Surinder Arora, Founder and Chairman of the Arora Group, the project to upgrade and improve Luton Hoo – the hotel, golf, and spa complex with a stunning 18^th century manor house at its heart – is much more than business as usual.

Driving through the gates for the first time, Surinder felt something that, even with his vast experience in the property and hotel sector, he’d never felt before – an immediate sense that the place was, as he puts it, “very special”. And so he bought it - as seen.