de Gruchy celebrates successful partnership year with Durrell

De Gruchy, one of Jersey’s oldest businesses, is celebrating a fantastic year supporting another of the Island’s iconic organisations, Durrell, having generated in excess of £15,000 for the wildlife conservation charity.

From cake bakes and sponsored walks dressed as lemurs to quiz nights and fashion shows, de Gruchy members of staff have thrown their hearts and souls into raising awareness and more than £8,000 for Durrell in 2012.

The partnership started with a unique event: the public display in one of de Gruchy’s King Street windows of one of only four dodo skeletons in the world. The tiny skeleton was placed in a special secure display to raise public awareness of Durrell’s work both in Jersey and further afield in saving endangered species.

To show their support for the charity, de Gruchy made available a key area of the ground floor of the store for a specially designed and built Durrell merchandise space. Over the year more than £17,000 worth of goods has been sold through the outlet, with all of the profits going to Durrell.

John Marquis, Store Manager of de Gruchy in Jersey, said: ‘We were absolutely delighted to have been able to help Durrell over the last twelve months. The work they do is incredible and as a business with so much history in the Island, for us it was fitting to be able to support an organisation that does so much for Jersey’s profile internationally. I have to thank and congratulate all the staff here as well. They have fully embraced the project and given up so much of their time and energy to making it work.’

The Durrell initiative at de Gruchy had two objectives for Durrell: to raise funds for, and to increase awareness of, its conservation work by reminding residents and visitors to St. Helier that Durrell is a fantastic place to visit and charity to support.

More than 100 de Gruchy customers and Durrell members attended a specially organised fashion show in aid of Durrell, held at the Town Hall on Thursday 7^th March, raising an additional £2,000 to mark the end of the year-long successful partnership.

Tags: de Gruchy, durrell, Featured

Category: Events