This is a Pod One production. For more information, visit podone. co. uk. This is the Business Village People podcast. Hello, I'm David Markwell, and welcome to the Business Village People podcast. This is episode two of series two. Here, we showcase unique stories from the vibrant companies and service providers of the village. Based at the business village in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Well, if you're ready. In this episode of Business Village People, we meet a clothes designer who would not be doing what she does now if it wasn't for an old chuffer puffing about at a railway station. Plus, we chat to the Business Village's new chief executive, Martin Beasley. He was all set to join the RAF and possibly fly helicopters. But that dream ended when they found out he was from Rotherham. Hello? David? What? It was just a joke, Kevin. Yeah, I know. Okay. Okay. Bye. I've been advised to point out that the last bit is untrue. He wasn't allowed to play with the choppers due to a sports related injury. I just thought my reason was funnier. Time to meet one of the newest clients to join the many companies at the business village in Barnsley. In saying that, she's run her own designer clothing business in Barnsley since the late 1960s. Since then, Rita Britton has become renowned around the world as a straight talking business guru. A few years ago, she retired, but now she's back. I asked her why. I think it lasted, well, probably a month, but I was seriously thinking after about four days this is, this is a big mistake. I think me and my other half. Or I probably would have killed him for not moving his breakfast pots off the table and putting them in the sink. So yeah, I thought, get back to it. Worked since I was 15. You know, you can't turn it off like a tap. And the other thing that you can't turn off, talking of taps, is creativity. You can't, you know, you've only got to look, I was listening the other day to the playwright. It looks like David, David Hockney. What's his name now? Alan Bennett. That's it. And he was in Westminster Abbey. And, you know, he must be eight, what, eight, five, eight, six years old. And he, it's the same there, isn't it? Can't just turn it off. It's still there, it's still interested in who those people were in those graves and what their lifestyle was like. And it brings it to life for you. You know, you just think this is wonderful. And David Hockney, you know, I think in Yorkshire we're an incredibly creative people. I really do think, maybe it's to do with adversity, I don't know. But, um, When I used to work at the paper mill, which I did from being, what, 15, 16. And the girls there were incredibly creative. We used to go to jazz festivals at City Hall in Sheffield and, you know, it was just wonderful. So yeah, it were, it were great. I think creativity is knocked out of people as they get older. by organizations and businesses and things like that and they're frightened to actually have a go at making something or creating something or drawing or coming up with a creative idea. Yeah, I mean, I, I, I have come across that. But then on the other hand, um, I was working with a young student from Barnsley, but she's now working in London at Westminster College doing fashion. She came to see me in the shop and she wrote, a mother with her and she brought her work with her and then she, I looked at her work and I thought, you know, this is good. This is really good. And she wanted to work with one of the London designers, a designer called Simon Rocher. And one of my guys who used to work with me as an assistant buyer. Oh gosh, I could go on and on and on and on, couldn't I? He was from Glasgow, right? And he was a real Glaswegian, red hair, fiery temper, the old lot. He is now one of the most successful men in New York, James Gilchrist. He works for He's virtually second in command to, there's a source called Dover Street Market, I don't know if you've ever heard of them, but they are the most avant garde stores on the planet. And he works for them. So I sent her his work and he said, yeah, what, what, what she want to do? I said, she wants to go and do a placement with Simone Russia. Two days later, she got the placement. And I did it with a jewellery design and then I thought the jewellery was gobsmacking. I mean, no one could have sold it here. It was like, uh, It's at about 10, 15 grand. And I sent it to James and said, what do you think of this? It's now in the New York store. So I'm still, what I find is that the people that I trained, and what he said to the jeweler who went to the store to place their jewelry in, he said, if Ree says, listen, or look at it, that's exactly what I do. And I thought that was great because he's so loyal that if I say, look at this. So I do work with young people and people that I've worked with in the past, buyers. Um, I mean, lovely stories I have to tell. The first buying job he ...
