Press Releases

EX-COUNCIL BOSS IN NEW ETHICAL CATERING ROLE

Aug 20, 2007

Not that long ago, she was a high-flier at Comhairle an Eilean Siar. Nowshe is the operator of a successful and highly-rated bed and breakfast service that is breaking new ground for its ethical credentials and its commitment to island produce.

Helen Froud has transformed her life from when she spent many of her waking hours implementing councillors' policy decisions in her role as Director of Corporate Services on Sandwick Road in Stornoway.

Now she provides business people, tourists and other visitors with a good sleep, a great breakfast and perhaps a clearer conscience about the effect they have on the world we all live in.

Helen has taken a desire to use island-made products to a higher level and combined it with a new and ethical approach to what she and her guests use at Jannel, the B&B business on Stewart Drive in the town thatis her home and workplace.

She explains: “We are looking to provide a bed and breakfast of high quality but where all our products are responsibly sourced - locally where possible - or are organic or FairTrade. That the basis of how we are trying to provide this B&B.

“The difference is that we go the extra mile looking for local producers and local suppliers and that we make sure we look at
every single product that we buy and ask ourselves if we could buy it locally or packaged in a more sustainable manner or whether we could produce it ourselves or in a way that's less damaging to the environment and more positive for the economy.”

Helen and her business partner Graham McLellan - who runs his four- and five-star Hebrides Self-Catering from the same website as Helen - agree that local produce is good for local business.

They use a local butcher - W J Macdonald - for all the meat they feed their guests. The sausages and the black puddings are only supplied by them because they regard the Francis Street butcher to be a good, high quality producer.

Apart from food, other examples are in all the rooms. Jannel only has soap by the Hebridean Soap Company of Breasclete. Guests love the fine liquid soap - a quality, vegetarian product made by a business on the island. “We provide it free in the rooms to give people an opportunity to try it. If they like it, we can sell them more or pass on orders to the company.”

There is a strong local flavour to everything in Jannel. Each guest room is themed with atmospheric prints taken by a different island photographer; curtains in the dining room are of Harris Tweed.

A dining room display area shows off locally made basketwork offered for sale along with the Hebridean Soap sets. Guests can
help themselves and leave the money in an honesty box.

FairTrade is a label you will see often in Jannel. It is an international organised social movement which promotes standards
for labour, environmentalism and social policy in poorer areas in developing countries. In other words, it helps ensure that poor producers are not ripped off and are helped to sustain their industries, however small.

The movement focuses in particular on exporting ethically-made produce from developing countries to developed countries.

On the courtesy trays in the rooms, the biscuits, tea, coffee,hot chocolate and sugar are all Fairtrade. Are there that many
guests who will be that much interested in such fine ideals as local purchasing and ethical international buying of foodstuffs?

Helen has no doubts. She says: “You'd be surprised how many visitors – whether on business, personal travellers or tourists -
are enthusiastic about it. If you travel repeatedly on business, you are interested in quality. When you think about the quality, you think about the supply chain of the product - where it comes from, who has produced it, what goes into it.”

She sees it as a way to raise the standard of service and says she is very pleased that their efforts are being recognised.
“That is borne out by the way we were awarded four stars this year after all the work we have put into looking at our sourcing and supplying.”

Jannel even produces its own food. Outside, there are a number of hens which range in the garden and in the hen run. These
particular ones came from Skye and the spin-off to Lewis is that Helen buys the chicken feed locally and these freshest of free range eggs, of course, contribute to the breakfast offering to the guests.

In recent years, spiralling costs have meant that more and more people have been leaving the bed-and-breakfast sector so it was a market that it was relatively easy for Helen to get into. “It was a great chance with some of the other operators in the business locally to push up standards. Why now? It was about a family-friendly business opportunity that presented itself and it has been, so far, a real success,” she says.

However, she is very insistent that she and Graham are not resting on their laurels.

“We are not static about this. Everything we do, we review regularly. We look to see what works and what doesn't, what sells
and what doesn't, what people like, and the feedback that we get. We aim our marketing back at what people like and what they want. If they respond well to something we think about doing more of it or doing it in a better way. “We had such positive feedback about the FairTrade tea and coffee. That is why we extended the FairTrade range as far as we have, and now sell healthy FairTrade snacks for our guests."

Helen came to the attention of Who Cares Wins when she came to a meeting in the spring. Graham also went on the Who Cares Wins learning journey last year and is committed to continually looking at the business and improving, as Helen is. His self-catering business is soon to be Hospitality Assured after whizzing through the nationally-recognised process which looks at every aspect of the customer experience and focuses on quality.

Graham said: "Hospitality Assured and Who Cares Wins have been very helpful to me helping me to put a proper structure in place for my business. It has all been absolutely invaluable."

The former council boss admits that even when she was in the ascendancy on the municipal career ladder, she hankered to take
the reins of her own business especially one that she, as a mother, could do at home. It still must have been a hard decision to quit the nine-to-five job – and the salary.

Helen says: “There comes a time when, if you do want to run your own business, you have to take an opportunity. And an opportunity presented itself and I was able to come out of the corporate world and start something I had wanted to do for a while. That was to run my own business and to run it locally to provide a balance of a good family life for my kids and also provide a service in the local community where you could see there was a niche.”