Brierley Hill store hosted a batty birthday breakfast

Oak Furniture Land’s bizarre birthday celebrations were held at the Merry Hill store in honour of the Birmingham and Black Country Bat Group - also known as BrumBats - on Saturday (May 30).

The BrumBats are a group of volunteers who work to conserve bats in the Birmingham and Black Country area by education, surveying and the care and rehabilitation of grounded and injured bats.

They joined the store manager and to raise awareness of their new Batlas project and celebrate all things batty, including a giant bat cake made by Kings Heath based cake artist, Annabel De Vetten.

Store manager, Bill Miles explained: “The Batty Birthday Breakfast is our way of saying a big thank you to our Merry Hill customers, we wanted to show our appreciation by supporting a local cause in a different way.

“Our Merry Hill customers have been loyal to us these past twelve months, we are proud to have been able to provide them with more furniture choices and we are looking forward to serving them for many more years to come.

“We are hoping that our first birthday breakfast will highlight the work that the Brumbats do for bat conservation in the area and get more local people signing up to join the group.”

Chris Sherlock, bat training officer at Brumbats, added: “We are delighted that the Merry Hill Oak Furniture Land store has decided to support bats in this way, we wish them continued success in the area.

“The Dudley area is important for bats in the West Midlands. A batty breakfast with a giant bat cake is a wonderful way to draw attention to our Batlas project, which involves surveying and mapping the bats of Birmingham and the Black Country.

“The Batlas Project will greatly increase our knowledge of bats in our area and support local bat conservation. The numbers of all British species of bats have fallen greatly in the last 50 years and this is why they are legally protected and why more information about where they live is helpful.”