Fiona Fleming, a 25 year old business graduate from Glasgow Caledonian, has been the franchisee of Domino’s in Paisley since June 2007. Together with her footballer husband Paul, Fiona is always looking for ways she can engage with her local community.

Fiona says: “For me, playing a relevant role within the local community is a really important part of running a business so I’m passionate about finding ways to get involved. Domino’s has a wealth of information and experience about how to develop positive community relationships, so the team there was my first port of call when I began researching partnerships and associations that really matter in my local area.”

Fiona’s community relations work has been extensive in the last few months. Alongside Freshers’ Week initiatives to give away free pizza and goodies to new students, supporting the MacMilllan Cancer Trust by donating prizes for its charity dinner and working with the Paisley University American Football team and St Mirren’s football team through donations, a key focus has been the Special Olympics.

Fiona says: “Although it’s a national charity, Domino’s chose Special Olympics because of its massive local network, which gives me the chance to do something to directly benefit people in my community. We have been busy raising money to support local athletes.”

Fiona’s first idea for Special Olympics was to organise an in-store pizza-making day with local athletes and present them with a cheque for the money her team raised through collection at events. She ran the idea past Domino’s and the team, who then helped her to put together an itinerary for the day.

“The session went really well,” says Fiona. “All the athletes had a lot of fun. Our own team members also got a real buzz from seeing their company using its resources to do some good that goes beyond our pizza delivery service.

“All these activities have taught me that good community relations are not just about one-off gestures but, instead, they are about offering consistent and relevant support. With the support of Domino’s we’ve been able to develop a great programme of local activities that have helped us to engage directly with the community which we serve.”