As we close the Centre’s doors ahead of our festive break (we’ll be back open from Friday 2nd January), we can look back on 2025 with pride at what we have achieved. This makes us even more excited for what’s to come in 2026 - we have some big plans, which you’ll hear and see more about very soon.
We want to say a special thank you to each and every visitor who joined us this year. Whether you attended a Show, Workshop, Course, or took part in an event or conference here at the centre, you are the reason we are excited to come to work every day.
To our partners: Without you, our incredible Centre wouldn’t be what it is today. We are proud to house over 200 exhibiting partners - offering the very best in solutions and technologies - and we want to say a big ‘thank you’ for being part of our extended family.
Every member of Team NSBRC plays a vital role in keeping the centre flowing and ensuring we continue to be an asset to our local community, as well as the self-build, renovation and retrofit sector.
For our ‘12 Days of Christmas’ this year, we wanted to share our 12 biggest achievements of 2025:
12 – In the last 12 months, we became home to 40 new exhibiting companies, and 22 existing companies enhanced or upgraded their stands.
11 – We’ve now been an employee-owned business for 11 years.
10 – In the 10th month (October), we launched our brand-new Retrofit Zone, the first new educational zone added to the centre since we opened in 2007.
9 – We ran 24 Courses across the year with 198 in-house attendees and 69 virtual attendees.
8 – We’re now 87% Employee Owned! This has increased from 65.2% (in 2016), by buying back a number of ordinary and preferential shares from our supportive investor, Capital for Colleagues.
7 – Our January show was a fantastic success, and our best-attended show for seven years.
6 – The NSBRC made six TV and radio appearances, including BBC One Politics, ITV, Times Radio, Fix Radio, BBC Wiltshire and BBC Radio 4.
5 – We became a B Corp business, achieving a score of 124.7 (with the minimum qualifying score being 80). This achievement demonstrates our unwavering commitment to ethical business practices, covering five business areas.
4 – We welcomed four new faces to the team this year:
• Jo Wylie (January) – Front of House & Coffee Shop Assistant
• Jackie Milne (April) – Front of House & Coffee Shop Assistant
• Louisa Flynn (November) – Marketing Executive
Yes, that’s three people - but we couldn’t not mention that our Front of House & Conference Manager, Deanah Probets, welcomed her beautiful daughter Lily in October (and Lily even joined us for our annual Christmas jumper day!).
3 – We proudly sponsored three fantastic community groups:
- Abby Meads FC U15s
- Swindon Supermarine FC
- Swindon 105.5 Community Radio
2 – We were nominated for in two categories at the TBE Awards. We won Sustainable Business of the Year and were finalists in the Dream Team category.
1 – In 2025, we reduced landfill waste by 17% compared to 2024, decreased carbon emissions by 23% over three years, and published our first annual Sustainability Report.
