DB News Update

As we batten down the hatches here at Potterdyke House, riding out the snow, it seems an appropriate time to sit back, put the kettle on and fill you in on what we’ve been up to here at DB Wood outside of our day jobs!

We’ve always been proud of the fact that many of us DB Wooders are quite an active bunch. We’ve had Oliver Crampton completing a marathon in Sweden, Sonia Prime and Helen Jackson tap-dance and one of the newest recruits, Declan Gamble, even trains some of the next generation of GBs Olympic rowers! We’ve also somehow ended up with consistent daily team challenges; in 2016 it was press-ups, building to 40 per day, in 2017 we managed a 4-minute plank and now we’re working on achieving a 4-minute seated squat by year-end (currently only at 45 seconds, but it already hurts to use the stairs).

We’re hoping we can share this passion with the local community to showcase how important health and wellbeing is to us as a company. Therefore, this year, we’ve decided to become one of the main sponsors of the Newark Half Marathon, in support of Newark based charities; Beaumond House, Child Bereavement Centre and Mind. We love a good contest so have added to the antics to introduce the DB Wood Challenge, offering the first male runner to finish in under 66 minutes and the first female to finish under 76 minutes, £500 each.

On a related but very separate note, some of you may have also seen us in the Newark Advertiser this week. It all started after a chance conversation over a haircut between our managing director Ashley Brooks and local barber Rob Fields, of Robert Fields Barbershop on Martindale Lane, but has led to a very interesting new sponsorship. Rob qualified as a community first responder in November and is trained to attend emergency calls received by the ambulance service and provide care until the ambulance arrives.

However, with the number of first responders, they have to rely on a communal pool of kit. This can mean a delay in helping a patient because while the first responder may be available, the equipment might not.

Ashley felt it was wrong for who is trained and able, not to have the ability to go and help save lives. So we purchased the £1,500 worth of kit on his behalf, providing Rob with his own emergency equipment, including a defibrillator, oxygen cylinder and a range of first aid supplies. These will be with him at all times, significantly improving his speed of response.

Finally, to focus and build our charity efforts over the years ahead we are pleased to announce that we will be launching “The DB Wood Foundation” later in 2018. The company has agreed to contribute circa. £10,000 per annum to the charity, but we will also be leveraging off our investment expertise to build those contributions into a larger pot, allowing us to have an increasingly positive impact as time goes on.

More details of how you can support or get involved with the DB Wood Foundation will be provided in the coming months.