Each week Bristol Business News gives a prominent member of the area’s business community the last word on its weekly e-bulletin. This week Sam Blakeney, managing director of Nippychecks, the recently launched eco-friendly gas and heating maintenance service, answers our 10 questions.
What was the LAST: 
Film you watched? Top Gun Maverick. Brilliant film – and I’ve been dreaming of becoming a fighter pilot ever since.
Book you read? Dodgers by Bill Beverly. A dark, gritty and atmospheric road trip and rite-of-passage read.
Concert or play you went to? The recent gig by Elton John at Ashton Gate. So many bangers!
Music or bought or downloaded: I’m Back by The Scribes and Astrosnare – a great head song for cycling round Bristol.
Sporting event you attended? Bristol Rovers v Scunthorpe in May. Seven goals to win promotion, amazing.
Holiday you went on? Villages Nature Paris Disneyland. I took my three-year-old daughter Rae and it blew her mind.
Restaurant you ate in? G Bros in Easton, which has to be the best peperoni pizza in the world…
Thing that annoyed you? Shortly after I started Nippychecks I realised how bad is the state of cycle lanes (gutters) in Bristol.
Thing that made you laugh out loud? Watching my daughter Rae eat pickles whilst singing a song about two pickles.
Piece of good advice you were given? My approach to life and business: “What’s the worst that can happen?”
Sam Blakeney is managing director of South Gloucestershire plumbing firm West Country Plumbing and Heating. Following turnover growth from £1.4m in 2020 to £1.8m last year, Sam decided to set up nippychecks – an eco-friendly gas and heating maintenance service in Bristol that uses cargo bikes. Based in Easton, it is serving domestic homeowners as well as helping maintain the portfolios of city landlords and lettings agents.
Photo of Sam Blakeney ©Barbara Evripidou/FirstAvenuePhotography.com
