Podcast appearances and mentions of bill collison

As the high street shops reopen this week, this episode focuses on the future of retail, from retail giants including Mark Constantine, founder of LUSH, and Roger Wade, founder of Boxpark.  We also hear from Bill Collison, founder of Bill’s restaurants - and they all share the same ethos, that being special to your customer, the vital importance of physical connection and the power of retail theatre are the key to a thriving retail sector of the future. SME: SOS is a topical podcast to support small businesses through this turbulent time of the Coronavirus. Offering advice from experts and founders, these 30 minutes are designed to empower and support you through this climate. This SME: SOS Special episode of Conversations of Inspiration is brought to you with thanks to NatWest, Dell, Three and Royal Mail. Follow Holly and #SMESOS on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hollytucker/?hl=en

BILL COLLISON, BILL'S Bill's started out many years ago, when Bill Collison opened a small greengrocery in Lewes, East Sussex in 2001. A few year later, he transformed the shop into a cafe that quickly became more popular than he could ever have imagined. So he opened another one in Brighton. Today, there are 80 restaurants across the country, all championing local, seasonal food and delighting customers from breakfast through to dinner time. MARK MCC (MARK MICK-SEE), SUPERSONIC INC I'm a rocket booster for your food, drink or hotel business. I will make a visible and commercial difference to your business across brand, marketing, digital, social and employee engagement. I have worked in Brand, Marketing, Digital, Social and Employee Engagement for over 20 years with companies such as lastminute.com, Barclaycard, YO! Sushi and Pret A Manger. I offer Strategy, Speaking, Workshops, Facilitation and Non Executive Director advice mainly for fast casual restaurants, fine dining restaurants, takeaway shops, coffee shops, delivery businesses, food and drink manufacturers, retail businesses, pubs, bars and hotels. Find out how I can help your brand BOOM at: https://supersonic-inc.squarespace.com/ Follow me: Twitter: https://twitter.com/supersonic_inc Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/supersonic_inc/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmcculloch/

We are joined by Bill Collison, Founder of Bill's Restaurants to discuss his amazing journey of building the 80 unit restaurant chain. In this episode, Bill explains the importance of seeing restaurant operations as a chance to 'put on a show', the evolution of his business, his thoughts on the industry, building strong teams and the key people and places that he derives inspiration from.

This week, Holly meets Bill Collison, the founder of Bill’s restaurants. In this episode, Bill shares his journey from the very early days as a barrow boy all the way to taking on investment to grow the business into what it is today. As a Romany gypsy, Bill grew up planting and foraging, which helped fuel his love for fresh, seasonal produce. It was this love of fruit and vegetables which led Bill to work for a brief time as a chef, before going back to work for his dad. Together, they started selling local, seasonal produce in a small shop. With instinctive creativity, and an inherent eye for design, the shop become hugely successful. With a growing array of homemade pies and soups alongside his fruit and veg, Bill’s Saturday girl (and now wife!) convinced him to think bigger and open a cafe. The first Bills in Lewes went from strength to strength and five years later a second site opened in Brighton which found equal success. Bill’s is now a family of over 80 restaurants! Crediting its success to the team (or as he describes them, family) who shared the same vision, Bill shares his advice for small businesses starting out in the food industry today. As well as his view on the future of the high street (and how to survive). Conversations of Inspiration is brought to you with support from NatWest: visit natwestbusinesshub.com for information, tips and insights to help business owners meet their goals.   Follow Holly on Instagram: instagram.com/hollytucker/?hl=en

Bill Collison is a bladesmith and armorer. He’s with the show Man At Arms: Reforged. I met Bill at Magfest 2018. He’s been an armorer and bladesmith for over 20 years and has been the armorer for the Maryland Renaissance Festival jousting troupe for many of those years. 0:50 – Bill talks about the piece … Continue reading Bladesmith Bill Collison interview →

This week Libby Purves is joined by Phil Davison, Sylvia Holder, Iris Krass and Bill Collison. Phil Davison is a craft-maker who worked as a couture pattern cutter to top London designers before learning the ancient art of cross-stitch on an exchange trip to Arkansas. Since then he has combined his obsession with street-art and cross-stitch, creating 'Urban Cross Stitch' kits with new designs that appeal to a new generation of stitchers. He also runs 'Cupcake, Cocktail and Cross Stitch' evenings. His first book 'Twisted Stitches' is published by Fil Rouge Press. Sylvia Holder was a London PR consultant on a business trip to India when she first met Venkat, a young Indian boy on a beach, and subsequently agreed to pay for his education. Sadly, at the age of twenty seven, just when all his efforts were beginning to show results for him and his family, he was killed in a road accident. Sylvia set up the Venkatraman Memorial Trust, in his memory, to support thousands like him, changing lives for the better. Iris Krass was fifteen when she was interned by the Japanese during the Second World War, along with her mother and younger brother and sister between 1942 and 1945. A new book 'Stolen Childhoods' by Nicola Tyrer, tells the previously untold stories of the children and their experiences of being interned. 'Stolen Childhoods' is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Bill Collison started out running a small greengrocers in Lewes, East Sussex, which expanded into a cafe and deli, known as Bill's Produce Store. He then opened up in Brighton, which soon became THE go-to destination for food-lovers and is continuing to expand. His book 'Cook, Eat, Smile' is published by Salt Yard.