Innovative tech & business collaboration helps boost Bucks economy

Published by

Nicky Godding

An innovative High Wycombe business stepped forward during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure businesses could reopen and provide safe conditions for staff and guests.

Prior to COVID-19, ANT Telecom specialised in the latest telecommunication technology, but the onset of the pandemic and its effects on the business community saw the company pivot its activity to provide a body temperature monitoring solution to ensure safer working conditions.

Fellow Buckinghamshire businesses Lata Lata in High Wycombe and Bijou Wedding Venues near Aylesbury, both part of a tourism and hospitality sector that has been hugely affected by restrictions and lockdowns, are early beneficiaries of ANT’s temperature monitoring technology allowing them to re-open safely.

Before a full reopening was allowed, Lata Lata concentrated on its takeaway service, supported by the likes of Wycombe Wanderers Football Club, which helped keep the restaurant running during a critical time. This particular partnership of local restaurant and football club was founded and strengthened on the peer-to-peer Tourism and Hospitality Mastermind programme, run in partnership by Buckinghamshire Business First, Visit Buckinghamshire and The Chilterns, and Be the Business, part of a support package for tourism and hospitality businesses to help them through this trying time.

Now given the green light to open fully, the team at Lata Lata are deploying a temperature monitoring terminal at the entrance of the restaurant.

Ross Hunt, Co-Owner at Lata Lata, said: “We found working with ANT Telecom really easy. They understood what we were after and made the perfect solution for us; an unobtrusive instrument that adds an extra layer of security making our customers feel safe and ready to come back.”

Klaus Allion, Managing Director, ANT Telecom, added: “Although the measures put in place to keep everyone safe may seem like dining out has fundamentally changed, the temperature monitoring is designed to cause as little impact on the experience as possible. And with risk-reducing initiatives are in place, customers can enjoy their meals with peace of mind.”

Another Bucks based business, Bijou Wedding Venues has also adopted ANT Telecom’s body temperature monitoring equipment, including its thermal imaging cameras which can detect multiple people at the same time and will be used to scan guests discreetly as they enter the venues.

Sam Cutmore-Scott, Managing Director, Bijou Wedding Venues, said: “ The temperature monitoring cameras allow us to protect all of our guests and staff right from the entrance of the venue.”

Philippa Batting Managing Director of Buckinghamshire Business First added: “This is one in a litany of inspiring stories of the Buckinghamshire business community rallying round in a time of great need, helping our economy flourish and build back better and stronger, ready for the new normal of doing business. The pandemic has put a spotlight on the willingness of businesses, communities, and individuals to innovate and work together for the greater good. Over the coming months, it is our intention to help intensify and facilitate this collaboration to support our economy to recover and thrive by bringing business leaders together with the intention of facilitating even more inspiring stories like this one.”

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.