For small independent businesses, being recognised by a national brand can be a great marketing boost. Interior design store Izzy Loops was recently promoted by Annie Sloan for their #StockistSunday alert with a Facebook post that reached almost 10,000 followers. Izzy and her team stock the Annie Sloan chalk paint products in her store where you can also commission pieces and attend design workshops.
Gallachers of Rugby wine merchant in Regent Street has changed their hours, so that you can get the most from their shop and events. Every Friday is now be Wine Bar Friday to enjoy some vino with the added bonus of experts on hand to guide your choices. Wine tasting events will be held on Saturday nights and the Bottomless Brunch will continue at usual at 11.30am on Saturday mornings.
Whether you need a venue big enough for a conference or just an adhoc meeting room, you can find it in Rugby town centre. We have a selection of locations, sizes and facilities to meet your business needs, some of which are detailed below.
In addition to hosting music and sports events, private celebrations and weddings, the historic Rugby School also has eleven venues that cater to up to 700 people for conferences and events. Atmospheric, historical buildings, manicured grounds and first-class facilities are the back drop to a bespoke event that the team can create for you. A full brochure is available from their website.
Oxygen Graphics has a bright space (pictured above) that comfortably accommodates up to 12 people above their design studio in Albert Street. With free Wi-Fi and a 42” screen the space is ideal for team meetings, brainstorming and training. The meeting room hire of £40 per half day and £75 per full day also includes hot and cold drinks from the coffee machine and mini fridge in the room.
Tailoring for self-employed individuals who need an ongoing office space and small groups of up to six people for meetings with more privacy than a coffee shop can offer, Draper Hinks has two rooms available to hire. Both rooms are quiet, airy spaces that are available for £20 per half day and £40 for a full day. The Regent Street location is at the heart of the town, with on street parking (metered) and Rugby train station is a 10 minute walk away.
As well as being attributed for singer Adele’s transformed figure, could pilates also be the key to shaping Rugby town centre’s transformation?
Recent research by Which? shows that over the last five years despite a number of well-known brands disappearing from the high street, food and drink, health, beauty and fitness businesses have shown significant increases. We spoke to Shape It Up Pilates on how being in Rugby’s town centre had benefitted their business.
Shape It Up Pilates is run by Anne Simonsen who leads a team of six instructors at their studio based in Churchside Arcade on Little Church Street and describes pilates as “an exercise programme designed to work and focus on your body’s alignment, breathing and balance – the key essentials for your body’s fluid movement.”
Having been trained in the USA, Anne has nearly 15 years of experience to call upon for the benefit of her members and clients. Along with fellow instructors\Dorte, Abigail, Katrina, Emma and Colette, they help and challenge clients to
achieve the results they are looking for by working on the core strength of the stomach, back, hips, feet and shoulders. They even work on your brain with co-ordination, focus and agility exercises which, as Anne suggested, are all essential for keeping us alert and “fit between the ears”.
Anne began operating Shape It Up Pilates with classes in the local village halls of Dunchurch, Hillmorton, Bilton and Clifton-upon-Dunsmore. As popularity and class numbers steadily increased, there became a need to look for and move to a dedicated central base. The subsequent move to and creation of a studio in Churchside Arcade four years ago has had the desired effect, as the growth of the business with increased
membership levels and demand for classes continues to demonstrate.
Shape It Up Pilates now caters for over 250 regular members and clients with a wide ranging programme of classes held at various times throughout the week available to
suit all ages. They are the only dedicated Pilates studio in Rugby offering equipment and mat-based classes, and only studio running a dedicated Holistic Core Restore® programme which runs four times a year.
The town centre location has many benefits for Shape It Up and, in turn, its members. In particular Anne draws on the studio and Churchside Arcade being easy and convenient to get to, and with plenty of parking available nearby.
And then there is the setting and environment of Churchside Arcade’s location set just off Rugby High Street. Anne has taken full advantage of the peaceful surrounds by creating a wonderful modern studio and hub which is welcoming and
inviting from the moment you step inside.
As their members and clients continue to get fitter and stronger, Anne and her team are happy to be another success story of Rugby’s business network and piece in the changing face of the town centre’s landscape.
Shape It Up Pilates, Churchside Arcade, Little Church Street, Rugby.
Telephone: 07905 718136
Email: info@shapeituppilates.co.uk
Website: https://shapeituppilates.co.uk
Last month we welcomed MB Massage Therapy to Rugby town centre. Sports massage therapist Mihail Beznuic has opened his business in a new suite of light and airy rooms above a
retail outlet on Clifton Road.
With more than seven years experience as an award-winning therapist, Mihail is a keen believer that prevention is better than cure. From sports / deep tissue massage to cupping therapy and pregnancy massage, MB Massage Therapy
offers a range of targeted therapies to relieve a variety of conditions.
Ideal for corporate clients is the chair massage which is a clothed, non-oil treatment of the back, shoulders, neck, arms, hands and scalp. Clients will be comfortably seated on an ergonomically designed massage chair, while the therapist employs pressure work to ease muscular tension, reduce stress levels, relieve headaches and migraines and also improve alertness. This treatment leaves patients
revitalised and invigorated.
Together with massage therapist Lauraine, reflexologist Sharon and yoga teacher Paul Thomson, MB Massage Therapy team is passionate about helping people find rejuvenation and renewal amidst the stresses of life and relieve the resulting pains that show up in their bodies.
Open Monday to Saturday MB Massage Therapy is located at 29 – 31 Clifton Road Rugby.
Email: info@mbmassagetherapy.uk
Telephone: 01788 877090
Web: https://mbmassagetherapy.uk
Jean’s Flowers based in Castle Street continues to defy the apparent low consumer confidence in our high streets and is looking forward to celebrating 30 years of trading in Rugby town centre in 2020.
The business was originally started by Jean Flear before being taken on by her sister Celia Tonks. It was in 2011 that current owner Angela McDonnell took over the business and has since continued to take Jeans Flowers from strength to strength.
As Angela explained, it is that close bond and ‘family feel’ that now sees Jean’s Flowers continue to serve a very loyal customer base, with the business now providing the second generation of its original customers with flowers and floral tributes for all occasions. A quick look around their shop in Castle Street is testament to that, and it is hard to miss the fabulous eye-catching displays which are regularly found outside their front door.
With almost three decades under their belt – or in Angela’s case nine years at the helm – Jean’s Flowers has seen the landscape of Rugby town centre change quite considerably. Those changes have inevitably brought both opportunities and challenges, but as Angela pointed out, being able to adapt to the needs of the business and their customers and clients continues to stand them in good stead.
As well as that loyalty, Angela said the town centre has a true community feel to it, and one that has so much going for it which many other towns would love to have. It is with that whole community feel that Angela and their team also take particular enjoyment from their involvement with the various events held in Rugby town centre. They pin-pointed the likes of the Rugby BikeFest, Food and Drink Festival and, in particular, the Christmas Lights Switch On, as events that really show the sense of spirit when Rugbeians and visitors alike converge to fill the town’s streets.
In Angela’s words, the secret to the continued success of Jean’s Flowers is “primarily good value, supplying and delivering the freshest flowers whatever the occasion, loving what we do, and being proud to be part of the Rugby town community”. And it is certainly a formula which continues to work.