Member Article

Local business group celebrates 5th anniversary

BNI Hooton, part of the Cheshire franchise of the worldwide word-of-mouth marketing group Business Network International, celebrated five successful years at its meeting on Wednesday 6th April.

The group of local business owners meet on a weekly basis to network, get to know each other, and to look for business opportunities for each other. The group offers support, growth and networking opportunities to businesspeople in the Ellesmere Port, Chester and Wirral area, and held its inaugural meeting on the same date in 2011.

Chris Sheppard, owner of Bromborough-based Endeavour Financial Planning, is the only original founding member of the chapter five years ago, and was presented with a commemorative ribbon to recognise his long-standing contribution to business growth in the area. The group also recently welcomed its 100th different member, local travel advisor Penny MacPherson, a Travel Counsellors franchisee, who was also awarded the group’s monthly award of ‘Notable Networker’.

In its five years to date, BNI Hooton members have referred to each other more than 8,800 opportunities for business. In this same period, members have been thanked for more than £3 million worth of business. Estimating that this money will be spent again between five to seven times locally, this would mean this local group has brought between £15.6 million and £21.8 million to the local economy in its relatively short existence.

Current Director at BNI Hooton, Wayne Taylor of the Lexus dealership of the Mitchell Group at Cheshire Oaks, said:

“The statistics speak for themselves and show BNI Hooton to be a constantly expanding and highly fruitful organisation for businesses in the area to be involved in. We now look forward to another five years of going from strength to strength.

“We’re always happy to welcome guests to visit our group, so any local businesspeople are welcome to come along to one of our meetings and see what BNI Hooton is all about.“

Interested businesspeople in the area are invited to attend BNI Hooton’s weekly meeting, which take place every Wednesday morning from 7:00-8:30am at the Mercure Woodhey Hotel in Little Sutton.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Darren Jamieson .