Business Diary: February 28

Which city outside London has the highest number of Junior Chamber International (JCI) members in Britain?

Edinburgh? Cardiff? Manchester? Birmingham?

No – it’s Sheffield.

The city’s JCI group has scooped a host of awards in recent months, and its success has been praised by JCI World President Bertolt Daems, who toured Sheffield during a trip to Britain earlier this month.

Sheffield has 68 JCI members, which leaves it second only to London, with 135 members, in the UK JCI pecking order.

Of-course, many proud members of South Yorkshire’s business community would love to see Sheffield knock London off its perch and take the top spot in Britain. But there’s no shame in coming second to one of the biggest financial centres in the world.

JCI Sheffield will be representing the UK in a number of categories at the JCI European awards which will be held in Germany in June.

The chamber has a rich heritage. JCI Sheffield was founded in 1927 and was only the third chamber established outside of the US. JCI in Yorkshire has provided mentoring for young people who have gone on to achieve national prominence. For example, Bernard Hogan-Howe, the new Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, is a former member of JCI Sheffield.

Pretzel logic

GRAHAM Bowland, the chief executive of a Leeds-based keyhole surgery specialist, got creative in a bid to spark surgeons’ interest in the company’s new product.

A pretzel shaped Scalextric track will adorn Surgical Innovations’ (SI) stand when it exhibits at the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons annual meeting from March 7-10 in San Diego, California. The hope is that the creation will help promote SI’s product PretzelFlex, which the firm says is the world’s first pretzel shaped organ and tissue retractor for use in minimally invasive surgery.

The company says that the pretzel shape means that the device has “impressive strength and stability to support large organs and tissue, ideal for obesity surgery”. During the show, surgeons will be given the chance to race SI branded cars around the pretzel shaped track. The best time each day will win a prize and there will also be a prize for the overall best time.

The United States is going to be the focus of SI moving forward.

Hunt goes Stone cold

Leeds Building Society’s new chief executive may have announced record figures for 2011 last week but it wasn’t all smiles at the company’s headquarters.

Mr Hill recently spoke of his quest to obtain concert tickets for the sell-out Stone Roses reunion this summer. He told Diary he had set his board of directors on a ticket hunt.

However, last week he admitted he had been defeated in his mission. “I’m glad I’m spending more time talking to you about Leeds Building Society’s excellent results rather than Peter Hill’s ability to get concert tickets,” he said.

Muppet mania

Muppet mania may be sweeping the cinemas with the release of the new film, but one Yorkshire company is also benefiting from its success.

Cravendale, part of Leeds-based Arla foods, has teamed up with The Muppets for its biggest campaign to date.

The campaign includes an on-pack promotion giving consumers the chance to own a limited edition Kermit the Frog backpack. The scheme, which launched on February 6, works by giving consumers a code when they buy a two-litre bottle of Cravendale milk. When they have collected 20 codes, customers receive a limited edition backpack.

In two weeks, more than 30,000 people registered online and 154,000 codes were entered, with 50,000 of those codes coming within one week of the on-pack promotion launching.

Sam Dolan, senior brand manager at Cravendale, said: “When we first discussed getting involved with The Muppets movie release we instantly saw the parallels. Both brands are centred on chaotic energy that spans generations and translates into real affection.

“We are delighted with the response that the on-pack promotion has received so far, especially with five weeks of the campaign still to go.

“In the last week alone we’ve seen five per cent of all codes in the marketplace entered on to our site, which is incredible.

“It’s astonishing to think that nearly 800 backpacks have been claimed already and are now a part of homes across the country.”