Our Grapevine team event took me back to Foundry in Poole, for our first attempt at a company wide, new financial year briefing. I wrote last month about our plans for this, and how, given the evolution of our business in 2023, an in-person delivery of our strategy for the coming year felt like the right approach, rather than a standard PDF document share.
At the same time, I didn’t want this to feel overly corporate, that’s not us.
I’m pleased to report that we struck the balance perfectly, combining the talk with an overdue company social that included dinner and a crazy golf tournament.
It was nice to finally be able to share the space at Foundry, where I spent a lot of time last year hiding out, with my colleagues also. Of course, the Signature Brew beer tap was popular. Donna Fletcher gave us some pro tuition on how to pour a pint.
I posted earlier in the day that the event was a ‘return to our roots’ with Grapevine having had a retail shop on Poole High Street in the 1990s. In truth, we’re only really a stones throw from the old branch at our offices on Nuffield Road today. There are embers of a resurgence happening in the town centre though and I really welcome having reasons to go there (four in this article alone), making new memories in the place where I, and Grapevine, grew up.
Here’s a few of us who continued on after the golf outside the former site, now a health and beauty business. You can improve your wellbeing in our old accessories emporium! Ed Shaw (far left in the photo) first joined Grapevine with a role at this shop in April 1998.
Liam Toms 