Photograph: The Ideal Extraction Team by Heidi Marfitt Photographer
The ‘Choose local. Make the switch’ campaign aligns to new research showing an evolving UK reward landscape with choice, ease and support for local leading the way
Ilkley employer Ideal Extraction is backing a national campaign to encourage organisations to support local with their Christmas rewards and incentives.
The ‘Choose local. Make the switch’ campaign highlights the positive impact that moving to local gift cards can have for communities across the country and features employers including dust and fume extraction engineering company Ideal Extraction.
Ideal Extraction made the switch to the Ilkley Gift Card to offer staff more choice while showing their support for the town.
New 2026 research from Miconex reinforces the campaign’s message, showing a changing employee rewards landscape in which choice, ease and support for local are important to employees and organisations.
- In the research, 39% of organisations said evolving employee needs had caused them to change some aspect of their rewards and incentives (R&I) offering in 2026. Supporting local was important to 98% of organisations, while 89% said corporate social responsibility (CSR) had become more important to their organisation over the past 12 months, up from 84% in 2025.
- From an employee perspective, 94% of employees said having choice in their rewards and incentives was important, up from the 89% in 2025. In addition, 65% of respondents think their employer could improve their rewards & incentives (R&I) offering, with suggestions for how they could do this including employee of the week/month, gift cards to visit local businesses, staff days out, and birthdays off.
- The majority of employees (88%) said they would like a gift card from their employer at Christmas. When asked specifically about a gift card that could be spent with local and national independent businesses, 98% said they would like to receive one from work for Christmas.
Town & City Gift Cards are local gift cards for towns and cities across the UK and Ireland, including Ilkley. The cards can be spent with shops, restaurants, salons, attractions and services in the town or city they’re branded to, ring-fencing spend to local economies.
In 2026, Town & City Gift Cards went live with leading corporate reward and recognition platforms, including Perkbox, Voucherline and Voucher Express, giving organisations the ability to access 75 digital Town & City Gift Cards for major cities, tourist hotspots and vibrant towns across the UK and Ireland.
Award winning engineering company Ideal Extraction use their local Town & City Gift Card, the Ilkley Gift Card, for staff rewards throughout the year.
Director, Helen Rhodes, from Ideal Extraction, said:
“In the past, we’ve given our staff something like flowers or chocolates as a thank you gift, but we moved to using the Ilkley Gift Card to give our staff more choice and show our support for local. The Ilkley Gift Card is a treat for our employees as it feels like a special gift being branded to Ilkley but it’s also helping our town. It’s a win-win.
“I was aware of the Trivial Benefits Allowance and after doing some research, I realised I was able to gift staff a £50 Gift Card multiple times each year, tax free. This is ideal as a way to give our staff perks throughout the year. It also feels more special than giving staff money through payroll, which is then taxed.
“At Christmas time in particular, you want to support your town and its businesses and a Town & City Gift Card makes a lovely present for your staff. I don’t know anybody that has received an Ilkley Gift Card and not enjoyed it. If more organisations made the switch to local, the impact on our towns and cities would be enormous.”
Ilkley BID launched the Ilkley Gift Card in 2022 to provide tangible support for the business community. The card can be spent with around 80 local businesses.
Sarah Brookfield-Almond, Ilkley BID Manager, said:
“The Ilkley Gift Card is the ultimate ‘shop local’ Gift Card, and can be spent with both big brands and independent businesses in the town, offering far more choice than a regular gift card. Not only does the card offer outstanding choice for staff, it offers real support for Ilkley businesses as the cards have to be spent in our town, with participating businesses. Making the switch to the Ilkley Gift Card this Christmas ensures your employee benefit also benefits your town.”
Colin Munro, CEO of Miconex, said:
“It’s fantastic to have the support of Ideal Extraction in our ‘Choose local. Make the switch’ campaign to highlight the huge impact that moving to local gift cards can have on our communities, bringing people through the door of local businesses with money to spend. In our 2026 research, 65% of respondents said they’d made a specific visit into the town or city to spend their Town & City Gift Card, and 69% used it to try a business they’d never visited before. In addition, 80% say they spend over and above the gift card value on redemption. Our cards drive footfall, spend and business discovery, which is invaluable to our business communities. I encourage all organisations to look at making a simple switch this Christmas that would be transformative for our communities.”
