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Bizmatch Ltd
Bizmatch encompasses four of Workmatch’s businesses: • REGARD, a wholesale horticultural services and community learning resource based at a Victorian walled garden at Lugwardine Court between Ledbury and Hereford. Bizmatch has its own constitution, board of directors, payroll and banking facilities. It is a Not-for-Profit company with trading surpluses being gift aided to Workmatch at the end of each accounting period. Across the four Bizmatch businesses plus a disability information service that it runs, Workmatch now employs 26 staff of whom eight are full-time and the remainder work a minimum of 16 hours per week. Eleven employees (of whom five are full time) are people with ‘long term’ disabilities. Disabled staff fill positions from senior management to operator level. Workmatch is governed by a board of five trustees of whom two have long term disabilities. At the start of 2000, some five years after its inception, Workmatch had a turnover of around £100,000 of which 65% came from statutory funding and around £15,000 was trading income. Bizmatch Ltd budget for 2006-2007 is £320,000 of which £200,000 will be from direct trading and contract services. Funding from statutory services now accounts for less than 15% of total income. Workmatch has maintained the Investors in People accreditation since 2002. It has also achieved ISO 9001 EN since 2001, and Community Legal Service accreditation in 2004 (the first charitable company to achieve this in the West Midlands). Workmatch has twice won a Remploy ‘Leading the Way’ award (2004 and 2005) for its work in helping disabled people to achieve employment and REGARD won a regional social enterprise of the year award in 2003. Says Workmatch Chief Executive, Geoff Tunstall, “Our staff are drawn from all sectors of the community. The single most important quality we are looking for is that they have something to prove, whether it be due to a lack of training opportunities when they were younger, disability, or from being prematurely excluded from employment. It is this hunger to succeed allied to a fully integrated workforce that has helped Workmatch (and Bizmatch) to move forward. We’ve succeeded due to hard work and 24/7 commitment. We’ve also never been complacent and have always been prepared to restructure when necessary. After five years of hard work we are proud to have four businesses, providing excellent products and services which are creating excellent jobs.” Customer comment: For more information see: www.workmatch.org.uk
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Bizmatch Ltd is the trading arm of Workmatch Ltd and was set up in 2006. Workmatch meanwhile, was formed as a charitable company, limited by guarantee in 1995. It was formerly the employment preparation unit for Herefordshire social services working predominantly with people with a learning disability. The aims and objectives of this new organisation were to broaden its client base to encompass all disabled and disadvantaged people and to generate alternative funds through its charitable status and through trading. Workmatch creates work experience and employment opportunities for disadvantaged people through its social enterprises. It currently runs four business activities across four locations covering Herefordshire and parts of Worcestershire, as follows:|
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