NSW Tourism Awards Finalist

Balloon Joy Flights has just been announced as a Finalist in the NSW Tourism Awards. This follows on from our recent win in the Inland Tourism Awards. The Gala presentation is to be held at the Sydney Convention Centre on November 19th 2009. Our friends from The Old Vic Inn and The Black Sheep Inn are also finalists. This means that us three local “Kids from the Bush” are up against the Big boys now. Wish us luck by leaving a comment to this posting.

LavendilliBlue : Sponsor CC 2010

Mitchell Lyons, member of Daybreak Rotary Orange NSW and co-owner of Lavendilli Blue with Tavia Lyons has announced that Lavendilli Blue  is coming on board as a sponsor for the Canowindra Challenge 2010.

Lavendilli Blue has a wide range of natural, pesticide / additive- free products which they retail via their shop in Orange and also via their online presence at http://www.lavendilliblue.com

Mitchell & Tavia will as part of the Canowindra Challenge 2010 program ;

• showcase their range of excellent products in a number of settings across the ten day CC 2010 program
• facilitate and present in an hour long workshop of natural skincare, body care and other products that utilize lavender products
• network their product range via email and contact inquiries in the leadup to  the CC 2010 event
• engage in discussions / forums and other promotion events as part of the CC 2010 event

Lavendilli Blue now features prominently as a networked connected link in each and every page of the GJKerr website.

Changing times

Last week we sent a letter to all our suppliers advising them that in future our Sydney office would close and that GT and Judy would cease to be Directors of Toms Waterhole. So what’s happening?

For the last few months we have been undertaking a complete management review, not only of Toms Waterhole but also our two associated businesses, Balloon Joy Flights and BJF Catering (that’s the business we use for our catering activities such as plowman’s lunches and pizzas under the stars.) We have done this with the help of a grant from Cabonne Council and a management consultant from Canberra.

At the end of the review the conclusion was inescapable. we had to bring all three businesses together and make the obvious synergies between them work properly. That was the only way in which all three businesses were going to grow. And if we did it was crazy for GT to be CEO of Toms Waterhole, GK to be CEO of Balloon Joy Flights and Jan and Judy to be buzzing between them like bees in a bottle. So we have centralised our billing and accounting at the winery and GK has taken over as CEO of the combined businesses with Jan as Marketing Director and Company Secretary. GT and Judy still have their interest in Toms Waterhole (although for structural reasons it will be changed a bit) and, most importantly, retain their consulting and advisory responsibilities.

And when it comes down to the wines GK and GT are still going to fight it out every time a new vintage has to go into the bottle. We don’t, actually, know how to do it any other way.