Member Article

Chester BID launches five-year term

More than 200 people gathered at The Chester Grosvenor Hotel this week as CH1ChesterBID Company outlined the first phase of its five-year plan to transform the city centre.

The team behind Chester’s Business Improvement District (BID) took to the stage to provide an update on the progress made since businesses voted ‘Yes’ to a BID back in June and explain how other businesses can play a part in the plans to boost city centre footfall and revenue.

Announcements made on the night included a joint procurement scheme that has already saved BID businesses more than £40K, a new CH1 weekly offers initiative through which BID businesses can communicate deals to thousands of consumers, and a new family-friendly Chester ‘Kidsmas’ Christmas campaign.

Paul Daniels, Chairman of CH1ChesterBID Company and Managing Director of thebestofchester, said: “We were delighted to have the opportunity to talk with more than 200 local businesses about how we have already started to deliver our ambitious business plan for Chester city centre.

“We need to deliver a world-class experience for our customers and a dynamic business environment for our BID members. Our City centre businesses voted overwhelmingly in favour of bringing a BID to Chester and one month in to our five-year plan, we have already started to deliver tangible results for our BID members.

“We want every business to understand how they can derive maximum benefit from the BID and how they can contribute to help us drive the BID forward.”

A partnership with voice, energy and water consultants InVEW was formally announced and representatives from the company were on hand to talk to attendees about how they could benefit from the service.

Through this joint procurement initiative, BID businesses have already saved more than £40K and the team is looking at similar schemes to reduce other business costs such as trade waste and collection and consumable supplies.

The event also marked the launch of a new ‘Power to Market’ weekly offers initiative enabling BID businesses to communicate their offers to a 50,000 strong consumer database and residents and visitors who can reap the benefits, encouraging them to return and spend their money in the city.

Mr Daniels was joined on the stage by Rita Waters, who outlined some of the Christmas initiatives BID will be supporting and was formally announced as the CH1ChesterBID Chief Executive.

The Chester ‘Kidsmas’ campaign aims to bring colour and fun to the city with a series of child-friendly services and animation. These will include a street concierge service with costumed characters such as Frozen favourites Anna and Elsa, Cinderella and Christmas elves welcoming the children, handing out gifts, helping with shopping and adding to the ambiance of Christmas.

A festive window display competition judged by children and an ‘elf-selfie’ competition supported by Marketing Cheshire will also form part of the Chester Kidsmas campaign to encourage children to bring their parents to the city to do their Christmas shopping.

For more information about CH1ChesterBID, visit www.ch1chesterbid.co.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Elle Brunton .