Newark Business Club was formed in 2001, when a small group of local business people got together informally and met at Reids. Within a year, this was formalised and soon a group of around 40 local businesspeople met each month at Gusto’s on Cartergate. Numbers grew, and we then moved on to bigger premises on Boundary Road, where parking was much easier- and then moved back to town centre to meet at the Atrium. From here, growing numbers of attendees (around 100 people each meeting) forced us to find somewhere larger and with better parking facilities, so we moved to our current home at Newark Showground.
For many years the club has had a very active Action Group looking at, among other things, local planning, education, town centre management, the A46 dualling, railways and local Hoppa Bus, car parking (and free Christmas car parks) and the Siege Token Scheme. The Action Group also developed our strapline (“Enthusiasm breeds success!”) and our mission statement:
Through partnerships, to help create a diverse and sustainable market town, embracing economic change by:
1. Encouraging active networking and enterprise creation within a business-friendly environment across the private and public sectors.
2. Establishing a long-term vision for the town and a broad consensus to deliver it.
3. Defining, encouraging and facilitating an appropriate retail mix.
4. Helping promote Newark as a distinctive tourist destination and place to stay.
5. Projecting Newark locally, regionally and nationally.
6. Become an award winning town.
To help create and sustain an economic environment that will make Newark a vibrant and rewarding town to live and work in and to visit.
The Club has also developed a Retail Group, to help our local retailers with a range of supportive initiatives. To see more details, please follow this link.
The Club has been described as a ‘critical friend’ by local councils, and this description is well-suited. We are generally supportive of anything that is done to help local commerce – but we are not afraid to speak out when necessary. With regular attendance from town, district and county councils, and with our local MP, Patrick Mercer making a very regular appearance, we are well-positioned to truly speak with one voice (actually, with over a thousand voices!) on behalf of Newark, its businesspeople and its residents.
The club currently has around 1,000 individual members representing around 800 separate organisations. Membership of the club is open to all who do business within Newark and its general surroundings, as well as those having a general interest in business in the town. In addition to businesspeople and retailers, we have councils, charities, schools and other not-for-profit organisations represented among our members. To join please click here.
To see our list of committee members, please click here.
Our new revised website has significantly easier search facilities, and improved access to information sources.
We hope you enjoy using the site, and make this your default search engine
for anything to do with Newark!