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2020: a new year, and my oh my, how fast the years are rolling by. That was the thought I had when putting together this edition of Connect. Where have the years gone? Can you, for example, believe, it was over 20 years ago that Rocquette Cider put saplings in the ground and started to build its huge orchard. 20 years on, the business is expanding in all kinds of directions, having got its product through the doors of nearly every Guernsey establishment.
The same goes for Sarnia Hotels, can you believe their longest serving member of staff has been working for the business for over 50 years? I certainly couldn’t.
While to an outside eye the staple island hotel group has seemed to evolve a huge amount since it started, through all that time, there has been one core principle at its heart: treat staff like family. And that principle has paid huge dividends for Sarnia, who recently held a celebration for all of its most long-standing staff. Yes, that’s right, it has that many staff that have worked at the business for 20 plus years, that it held a full- blown celebration for all of them. Not only that, but it is going to be doing the same for its staff who have given 10 or 15 years of service in the near future.
I am also happy to announce we have partnered up with GROW for this year, a charity which offers sheltered working opportunities for physically and learning-disabled people in the island. Guernsey’s Rural Occupational Workshop celebrated its 35th anniversary last year, and in doing so, decided it was time to bring itself in to the future. It didn’t hold back with its plans either, and laid out blueprints for a total overhaul of its vinery site. GROW are going to need all of the community’s support to achieve their vision, but it is support that is well deserved, and that is why we were happy to offer our two cents – you can read more about them in this edition.
Those of you in finance will likely be getting ready for the next MONEYVAL inspection this year - it is expected to happen sometime from 2021 and has come around quickly since the last one in 2014. We sat down with one of the people behind the newly released handbook, who used to work at the GFSC, to find out what it is all about, and also to speak about how Guernsey ensures it isn’t enabling the funding of terrorism around the world.
So here it is, a new year, a next Connect, this time with some highlights of Guernsey’s past, present and future.
Enjoy Guernsey Connect.
