Patients at the King George V Hospital have a new garden and recreation area to enjoy thanks to the help of staff from RBS International.

Staff members were approached by Local Charities with a view to making donations towards the King George V Hospital. Upon visiting the hospital, the Spanish Mortgage Team were taken aback by the condition of the Garden / Recreational Area, at the rear of the Hospital, which the patients used on a daily basis and consequently they immediately decided to raise money for the project.

The team came up with the idea of sponsoring two of the staff to become volunteer Fire Fighters at the Defence Fire & Rescue Services for a day, and as a result raised over £5,300. They then approached local contractors Haymills to assist with the construction work. Haymills’ work included redesigning of the garden as a whole, adding a pergola an aviary, making the swimming pool safe, installing safe benches along with fixing the drainage and leveling off all the floors. A gate at the entrance to the garden was also erected.
The Spanish Mortgage team also pitched in, swapping their office-wear for overalls, as they helped excavate the garden, laid new soil and potted plants to bring some colour to the area. A new BBQ area and garden furniture have also been provided for the patient’s enjoyment.

Steven Gonzalez, Mortgage Analyst at RBS International explained: “We realised immediately that fundraising was needed to improve the recreational facilities at the hospital, which are used on a daily basis by patients and staff. The Spanish Mortgage team decided to raise funds so the area could be vastly improved. This involved two members of the team joining the MOD Fire Brigade for two days. This raised £5,300, which we pledged to the hospital. We are so grateful to Haymills, without whom this project would not have got off the ground for both their generosity and the time they have invested, as well as the Defence Fire Service for their hospitality.”

Chief Executive of the Gibraltar Health Authority, Dr David McCutcheon, commented: “The Minister for Health, the mental health staff and the patients are absolutely delighted with the new recreational area. We are extremely grateful for the hard work and commitment that RBS International and Haymills have shown throughout this project and we are all looking forward to using the area in the future.”

WestMed Insurance, a fully owned subsidiary of local insurance company Argus, is now able to offer all Argus customers a complete range of insurances for Spain.

“Having listened to requests from our existing customers we have developed a new scheme with partners in Spain which enables us to offer cover for many different risks based in Spain.” said Tyrone Montovio chief executive of WestMed.

“We can now offer cover for villas or apartments, businesses or warehouses, cars or vans, yachts or boats as well as Health and Travel. We will provide instant quotations from our offices here in Gibraltar, and we can usually arrange cover on the same day. All customers will be assigned a local account handler, so it is just as easy and simple as insuring with us in Gibraltar.” said Tyrone.

“This new initiative from WestMed is typical of how we listen and react to our clients changing insurance needs, and we are working on further initiatives which we will be announcing soon.” said Andy Baker, Argus Chief Executive.

Castle Windows is the first manufacturer of PVC plastic windows and doors units in Gibraltar, ever, to gain a British Standard Kite mark License to support the manufacturing of its new PVC windows and doors systems locally. Their factory employing twelve employees is based in Shackleton Road.

The Castle Windows team under the direction of Director’s Peter Turner and Steven Noble and Production and installations Manager Bryan Yandle started full production in May 2008.

The company manufactures REHAU window and door systems that are recognised as some of the most technologically advanced, environmentally friendly, long lasting systems in the world. In November 2008 after much hard work from the whole team, the Company gained its Kite mark License.

Built in Gibraltar for Gibraltar.

Castle Windows been manufactured window and door systems for the Government of Gibraltar’s housing schemes at Cumberland Terrace, Bayview and Nelson View in the south district. The quality, strength and endurance of the windows and doors were put to the test in October of last year when Gibraltar saw some of the worst storms on record, Castle Windows systems withstood the test of those terrible environmental conditions.

All Castle Windows employees receive ongoing training from REHAU specialists; Production and Installations Manager Bryan Yandle is now accredited to deliver REHAU training locally to all new employees. REHAU visit the factory at least twice a year to continue their support. All manufacturing machinery meets with REHAU and British Standards. Castle Windows is delivering cutting edge technology in its products and customers benefit from a locally based after care service.

Castle Windows are presently producing casement windows, tilt & turn windows, French, Patio and sliding doors and will also be developing curtain-walling systems over the coming year. West End theatres as well as the Royal Opera House.

As the financial crisis bites across Europe, competition among airlines has made it a good time to be travelling, with many carriers dropping prices in order to attract customers.

It is well worth checking out the premium airlines as well as the low cost carriers and making a comparison of fares to services offered; you may well find that by applying a few simple rules you can book yourself a bargain flight and travel in style at the same time.

Celebrating 90 years of operation this summer British Airways is one of the longest established airlines in the world and has some simple tips that you can apply when booking your flights online with any airline to make sure that you get the best deal possible.

The first rules of the game is to keep your journey simple, travel on less popular days and at less popular flight times, and of course avoid making any last minute changes.

Jordi Porcel, Regional Commercial Manager, for South West Europe explains that “On all flights there are a limited number of seats offered at competitive fares and the people who book early snap these seats up. With most booking engines it is much easier for customers to compare prices for simple journeys, that is a single flight e.g. Gibraltar to London, and simple transfers such as London to New York. By keeping your journeys simple you can easily identify the best fares.”

Finding the optimum day and time for travel should not be left to chance – mid-week is usually a good time to grab a lower fare but this in not always the case depending on the chosen route and the season.

“When booking online make sure that you can view fares offered across a whole week this helps you to identify the most favourable travel days. For example, you can save up to £100 by simply travelling a day earlier. We have a great feature on our site, ba.com, that customers can use to scroll through the days and weeks to find the best fares for their selected journey,” adds Jordi.

Another useful tip is to research your travel well and try to find a single airline that can provide flights for the whole journey; this is where the premium carriers really manage to offer
a great service through their extensive networks.

When you have planned your journey and selected some potential carriers compare the services and products offered. Once you have added up all the extras for baggage, online check in, in flight refreshment, and space and comfort on board, you may find that for a few extra pounds you can enjoy all the benefits of travelling with a premium carrier.

Red Sands Insurance Company (Europe) Limited was licensed in January 2004 principally to write legal expense insurance business. However, it has grown well beyond expectations and in just 5 years it is now licensed to write 16 of the 18 classes of general business.

Red Sands underwrites various lines of business, ranging from motor mechanical breakdown (now 2nd biggest provider in UK), insurance backed home improvement guarantees, gap & payment protection, personal accident to pet insurance. Premium has since grown to reach £22m for 2008, with budgeted growth for 2009 expected to exceed 20% despite the credit crunch.

During 2007, Red Sands decided to strengthen its local presence and became self-managed where previously we were managed by Aon. Over the past 18 months it has grown to 7 members of staff and has outgrown its old premises in Europort.

Further during 2007, Red Sands also decided to expand its business beyond the UK and Ireland. It now writes business in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Czech Republic, and Poland. Although we are still establishing a proper foothold in these countries, we do expect that these territories will become a very significant part of our business.

“The ability to conduct business from Gibraltar into all these territories via freedom of services clearly indicates that the decision to establish Red Sands in Gibraltar was the correct decision.” said Chris Lathey.
During April 2008 we acquired a stake in Haven Insurance Company Limited, an existing Gibraltar insurance company, which writes specialist motor business in the UK. We have been working very hard with management over the past 9 months to improve the profitability of this business in a tough market. Moving forward into 2009 we anticipate to write £15m of premium and once all the fundamentals of the business are right, will grow annual premiums to around the £25m mark.

In January 2009, we established Red Sands Life Assurance Company (Europe) Limited, a Gibraltar based life assurance company with £4.5m of new capital. A television campaign will shortly get underway in Poland to promote our life products and in time we expect this company to grow to a similar size as our general insurance company.

Overall with the 3 businesses we expect to write close to £50m of premium this year, following which we anticipate our momentum to get us to £100m premium during 2012.

Red Sands is part of the same ultimate grouping as the Hollard Insurance Group (largest independent insurer in South Africa, and second largest overall), which directly employs 1,500 people, has assets exceeding £1bn, and has 6.5m policyholders worldwide. Also part of Hollard is the Lombard Insurance Group, the largest surety and credit underwriter in South Africa.

The unique position of Gibraltar within the EU has very much made this the domicile of choice for us. We have access to the whole European market and have a responsive and well regulated environment in which to operate. We operate as an open market insurer in a very competitive marketplace, where credibility and reputation are essential to our success and to date, Gibraltar has provided that framework.

To see us through the next phase of our growth, we are moving to new premises at Ocean Village which will hopefully be big enough to service our future needs for clients and staff during the next few years.

Linda Alexander joined International Franchises Ltd in April, taking on the role of Ladies Buyer.

She moved to Spain with her family six years ago and wanted to get back into the retail trade after spending time at home with her two children. She joined River Island in the UK as an Admin Assistant. Linda worked her way up through the ranks with companies like Top Shop and Etam. Her last position before she left the UK was Senior Merchandiser/Product Manager for Miss Selfridge. Linda loves being back in the business and is looking forward to many happy years at IFL.