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Find out more about PHS Teacrate from the inside! David Wicks, MD of Teacrate, will be sharing his thoughts, ideas and even his feelings on this blog, so that you can keep in touch with what's happening at Teacrate and across the industry.
Archived posts can be found using the links to the right of this page. Contact us with your comments! Monday 16th August Some useful information for domestic movers has recently come out of a survey of UK removal companies conducted by reallymoving.com. The survey reveals the top 5 tasks most commonly not done or forgotten by home movers on their moving day: 1. Dismantling of furniture - many forget to dismantle flat packed furniture making removals particularly difficult as removers struggle to negotiate corridors and stairs 2. Disconnecting white goods - white goods that remain plugged in are often a frustration to removals companies as many are not insured to perform 'handyman' roles 3. Incorrect or incomplete packing - another common cause of removals slowdown, with some home owners forgetting to empty the loft or garage and frantically trying to get it done on the big day 4. Packing a survival kit - for the homeowner, packing a useful box of tea, coffee and snacks was commonly forgotten, leading to frustration at the other end as the family realises that they cannot have a recharging brew! 5. Telling relevant firms/people - several movers reported home owners often forgetting to let the relevant people know that they had moved house. Utilities companies and the Inland Revenue came near the top of the list, but many forgot to tell their own in laws. Coincidence - who knows!! Wednesday 5th August Staying with the subject of our buy-on-line removals packaging website - teacratepackaging.co.uk - we have recently launched a brand new blog on the site. Through our blog all interested parties can now communicate with each other in real time. We think that this great new facility will give readers lots of insights to the Teacrate Packaging business and its people and also to the wider Teacrate community. Its a space where we and other guest bloggers can post a wide variety of useful tips, advice and comment around the many subject areas and experiences relating to moving and packing, and you can give us your take on it as well. Please go and take a look. Its in its early stages right now, but we're planning to build it up over time. Please post any views or thoughts you may have at the moment, or if you'd like to submit a guest blog post for us to consider, please send it to Ruth Scruton in our Marketing team. Wednesday 28th July I'm delighted to announce that our online removals packaging business teacratepackaging.co.uk, has recently agreed an exclusive partnership with reallymoving.com. This will bring Teacrate fantastic promotional opportunities and greater exposure to thousands of reallymoving.com visitors as they search for other related home moving services on this fully integrated, market-leading site. Reallymoving.com established in 1999, provides quotes for a variety of essential home moving services including removals, conveyancing and surveying. They have built a reputable network of service providers operating across the UK. Effectively, it’s a one-stop-shop for consumers researching and sourcing the services they need when moving house. Reallymoving.com also offers domestic removals companies throughout the UK a removals leads service. Sign up now for a months free trial and discover how reallymoving.com can help your business. Monday 19th July As recently publicised in Removals & Storage Magazine and in the news pages of our website, Teacrate's mid sized lidded crate (the 'LC2'), has been renamed the 'stair crate' by the removals industry! This particular crate was developed for the retail trade initially, but is proving a real winner in removals as well. Amidst health & safety concerns surrounding the handling of larger crates when they are fully loaded (particularly on stairs), the 'stair crate' can offer an alternative and safer solution. Due to its compact size, handling is greatly improved, supporting health & safety all round. The stair crate is now being widely used in commercial removals and particularly on government sector jobs where there is commonly a greater emphasis on health & safety. Like all our other crate products the 'stair crate' is available on next day delivery to locations across the UK, and it can be custom branded if required. Wednesday 7th July Some news to report on the PHS Group front. PHS Datasafe has been re-branded including a name change to PHS Recordsmanagement. Its new name better represents the services offered, which are not limited to storing documents and records but also managing files, storing media and computer backup tapes, advising clients on destruction dates, all backed up by an efficient retrieval service in as little as 2 hours. Their website recordsmanagement.co.uk has also had a bit of a makeover. In early July, a brand new division, PHS Compliance was launched, which will deliver multi disciplined services in the area of legislative compliance. Its been formed from a merger of two market leading specialists in the safety field coming under the PHS umbrella - Epsilon Test Services and CLM Compliance. The newly formed PHS Compliance will offer services relating to electricity, gas, fire and lighting safety, where the appropriate mix of inspection, testing, remedial work, planned maintenance and emergency repair work can be delivered to meet individual client needs. Wednesday 30th June According to the Nationwide Building Society house prices were up again in June, but by only 0.1%. Although the positive upward trend continues, the June increase is down on the May increase of 0.5%. The average property in the UK now costs around £170,000. House prices have risen by 3% since the start of the year according to Nationwide's index, but prices are rising more slowly now than they did this time last year. Experts believe that this slowdown may be due an increase in the number of properties coming on to the market, perhaps in response to the scrapping of hips. The level of demand in the market has remained broadly stable. Monday 21st June More homes are going on the market in England and Wales due to the scrapping of Home Information Packs (Hips) according to surveyors. The most recent survey from RICS reported a 'sharp increase' in new instructions from prospective sellers. Almost a quarter more surveyors reported a rise in prices than reported a fall in the three months to May, and surveyors are generally confident that sales will continue to pick up over the summer months. Despite continuing concerns about mortgage finance, the increased housing supply, as a result of the abolition of hips is supporting this optimism. Wednesday 9th June We've launched an exciting new initiative this week called "High Five". Its a 5-way incentive for becoming a contracted customer including free deliveries, extended credit, retro rebate, guaranteed prices and discounted rates for crate collection. This brand new scheme essentially rewards the loyalty of customers in contract with us. Take a closer look at how the High Five scheme works and how it could benefit you by clicking here. Wednesday 26th May Home movers in London have least possessions according to a recent survey. This is just one of the useful insights from a survey by reallymoving.com, which analysed requests for removals services in 2009. Home movers in the East of England are most likely to hoard their belongings, whereas Londoners have the lowest volume of possessions, according to the findings. The average Londoner moved 737 cubic feet of possessions. By contrast, those in the East of England have belongings totalling 911 cubic feet! Home movers in Scotland had the second lowest volume of possessions with 778 cubic feet. Thursday 20th May The Housing Market Rockets! So says a headline from the Daily Express earlier this week. The article reports that further signs of recovery are emerging with evidence that mortgage approvals had almost doubled. Increased consumer confidence, low interest rates and better weather are underpinning this recovery. Confidence in the market is high - a ‘Your Move’ survey reports over three quarters of home owners believing house prices will continue to rise over the next year. The effect of the Stamp Duty holiday that ended in January needs to be thrown into the mix but overall the trend is up and things are pointing in the right direction! Monday 17th May I’m pleased to hear that Pickfords Business Moving were overall winners of the prestigious Commercial Mover of the Year award for 2010. Congratulations and well done to Pickfords, also to BCL (the runner up) and all the Certificate of Merit award winners. The overall winner was revealed at the BAR Annual Conference in Bristol last weekend at the Gala dinner. With the focus firmly on quality, entrants were put through their paces on their quality management systems and processes, which highlighted some really excellent practice. Teacrate is again delighted to sponsor this key industry event which continues to drive standards to the very highest levels and recognises the excellent work undertaken in the commercial moving sector. Wednesday 12th May Historic change is taking place in British politics this week with a coalition government now at the helm. The first coalition government Britain has seen for 70 years. Cameron’s arrival in Downing Street last night marks the end of 13 years of Labour rule. The Conservative – Lib Dem alliance led by Cameron and with Nick Clegg as his deputy moves us into a new political era. Who knows how all this is going to play out? The idea that politicians of different persuasions will come together, overcome their differences and act in the interests of the country is one thing but it remains to be seen how this will work in practice. The first priority has to be the pressing economic situation and action to reduce the massive budget deficit. Details emerging suggest that there will be major focus on making £6bn of spending cuts this year, with an emergency budget to take place within the next 50 days. Perhaps we should brace ourselves for what lies ahead!! Thursday 6th May As we go to the polls today to cast our votes, consider some of the ‘dos and don’ts’ of polling station etiquette. Useful stuff for first time voters and maybe just points to note for the rest of us! You can take your dog with you in an ‘accompanying role’ rather than ‘free range’. Try not to turn up dressed in party insignia or emblems – it’s about not intimidating other voters about who they should support. Taking photos is strictly prohibited inside polling stations due to the British democracy working on the basis of the secret ballot. If you’ve been down the pub and feel a bit tipsy, you can still vote – but be prepared to be asked a few questions by staff and perhaps being told to come back later! Openly discussing the candidates with friends or a spouse is not allowed as it may unsettle or influence other voters. Children are welcome at the polling station, but don’t let your child mark your ballot paper for you, as it will become void. Don’t sign your ballot paper either, as it will be rejected (the secret ballot thing again). As an aside - Do the Royals vote? It depends whether they’re a minor or major royal. Although the Queen lives in Westminster, she is not on the electoral register there. As head of state, she’s part of the institution, so cannot vote. If you make a mistake on your ballot paper, you can re-do it, provided you haven’t already put it in the box. Staff will cancel your paper and issue you with a new one. And finally, what if there’s a fire? Get out quickly! Staff will probably re-open the polling station from the boot of a car – that’s been done in the past! Monday 19th April FRL Recruitment, a provider of professional recruitment solutions to the Facilities Management industry has released a report on current recruitment trends and the state of the FM industry in the UK. The report suggests that the support services industry has been one of the least affected by the recession. In 2009, the majority of FM service providers experienced an average increase in their revenues of 10.8% - a growth shared by large and small organisations alike. Indications are that there is still significant growth in the FM market and that the numbers employed in the UK’s FM industry are likely to rise. I guess that’s positive news for the range of organisations, involved in servicing the needs of the FM sector - including those in commercial removals and relocations. Monday 12th April Liverpool looks to be the favoured location for up to 1,000 Ministry of Justice jobs, which Alistair Darling announced would be relocated from London saving £41m. The Liverpool Echo has recently reported that the move of these jobs to the city will be a key step towards the creation of a “civil service campus” in the Pall Mall financial district. Liverpool is likely to face stiff competition from Manchester that is building its own civil service hub with proposals for offices capable of supporting 3,500 staff. Over the next 5 years 15,000 civil service jobs will be relocated from the capital and South East in the drive for efficiency savings. Over the longer term it’s anticipated that a third of the Whitehall workforce will move out of London.
Thursday 1st April It’s the first week of the PHS Group’s new financial year which is being marked with the launch of a brand new Group website. The new site has been many months in the making, and with well over 500 pages of content gives a range of users a comprehensive and updated overview of the diversity of companies and products coming under the PHS brand. You can browse the new site at www.phs.co.uk. If you wish to give us feedback on the site, you can do this via the Group contact us page. The site of course contains a section on PHS Teacrate, which has multiple links through to Teacrate’s dedicated site. I hope you find the new site helpful and informative. Spot the April Fools gag! Clue … there’s something in the air! Wednesday 24th March Reaction to today's budget announcement on the raising of the Stamp Duty threshold to £250K has been largely positive. Estimates suggest that it will remove about 50% of transactions from the Stamp Duty system. Estate Agents are upbeat with the National Association of Estate Agents commenting that it has added a new rung to the property ladder which will help thousands of young families. The Home Builders Federation too say that the move will give a huge boost to the market and will be of particular benefit to first time buyers. RICS believe that the change could help bring annual housing transactions back up over the 1 million mark for the first time since 2007. Changes at the other end of the market indicate how this will be paid for, with Stamp Duty increasing to 5% on homes worth over £1 million. Some feel that this is a tax on Southerners with 81% of homes in this price band being located in London and the south east. Monday 15th March It’s been almost a month since the Movers & Storers Show and the feedback that I’ve received on it from the Teacrate staff attending has been very positive. The post show round-up produced by the organisers reported a total of 546 visitors coming through the door – which although down on previous years was a pretty healthy attendance level. On the Teacrate stand we welcomed many of our existing customers as well as a number of new contacts and we have since been busy with all our follow-up activity. Many congratulations to David Laurie of Wrekin Removals who was the lucky winner of our Show competition and recipient of a nifty Series 2000 Magliner. Wednesday 3rd March With a gloomy February behind us, and the green shoots of Spring to look forward to, its still a mixed picture out there on the economic front. One piece of news on the positive side - the financial strength of businesses has been shown to be increasing – with Experian’s latest Insolvency Index revealing that in January the rate of business failure fell to its lowest point since June 2007. On the other hand, the public sector braces itself for a major hit with cost cutting being top of the agenda. A lot of activity is expected here over the coming months that will have far-reaching effects throughout the UK economy. Civil service re-locations are being looked at, with up to 15,000 posts to be targeted for relocation out of the South East. A report on this is due for release this month – so that one should make interesting reading for all of us involved in the commercial moves sector. Friday 19th February Reloc8, an up-and-coming player in corporate relocation, corporate interiors and workspace consultancy has recently signed a 4-year exclusive crate supply deal with Teacrate. We are, of course, delighted about this development and excited too, about the prospect of working collaboratively with Reloc8 and their clients to support their new ‘Relocrate’ service with our branded crates. ‘Relocrate’ is a tailored crate rental service forming part of Reloc8’s suite of fully intergrated moves and moves management services. With reassurance of product availability and support on a national basis, Reloc8 chose Teacrate as their strategic partner for this collaborative venture, which I’m sure, will translate into a very positive development of the Reloc8 brand. Wednesday 10th February We’re making final preparations for our presence at next week’s Movers & Storer’s Show at the Telford International Centre, and it looks to be a busy one now with all the stand space fully booked. Key Teacrate staff involved with the industry will be attending, including Simon Johns (Sales Director), Paul Bullock (Key Account Manager) and Dave Ewart (Business Development Manager). Teacrate are exhibiting on Stand G73, so please, if you are attending the show, drop by and say hello! We’ll have our leading products on display and our specialist team will be happy to assist you with any enquiries. Look out for our show special offer as well! Thursday 4th February Following Teacrate’s acquisition of GB Nationwide back last year, we were pleased to continue their annual charitable tradition of providing the free use of crates across London to support 'Crisis Christmas'. Crisis, the homeless charity has been running their highly successful 'Crisis Christmas' operation for the past 38 years, where essential support and services are brought together and provided to the City’s most vulnerable. Each year 'Crisis Christmas' allows the homeless to be provided with food, companionship, a warm and safe place to stay, medical care and specialist advice from a number of centres around London over the festive period. The availability of crates is essential with all the logistical challenges that this operation presents. The latest 2009 operation helped many people on the streets of London and we are happy to support such a worthy cause. Read more about Teacrate's involvement in Crisis Christmas here. Wednesday 27th January For the smaller removals companies out there - you may be interested to know that Teacrate can now offer removals packaging DIRECT TO YOUR CLIENTS. If you don’t currently offer packaging supplies or are looking to reduce your stockholding of these items, then why not consider partnering with our online packaging company teacratepackaging.co.uk. Here, home-movers can browse our extensive product range and order online for delivery direct to their door the next day, anywhere in the UK. By partnering with teacratepackaging.co.uk you can provide extra value to your customers, and, as all referral orders are subject to commission – you could earn nicely out of it as well! To find out more please contact Martin Hunt on 0800 980 6996. Wednesday 20th January The CMOTY 2010 competition entry deadline is looming with just a few days to go before entry forms have to be submitted. If you haven’t already got your entry form and guidance notes you can download them from our updated CMOTY webpage, by clicking here. This year there are no award categories – the award has been designed to recognise and reward best practices and partnerships across the board, with the judging criteria focusing on; overall quality, budgets, client participation, schedule, innovation, flexibility, project management and communication process. One overall winner will be chosen from three finalists and if last year is anything to go by, the standards will be extremely high and the competition intense. So, why not give it a shot and get your entry in now! The deadline for entries to the competition organisers - the BAR - is 29th January 2010. Wednesday 13th January 2010 Happy New Year! Well here we are in 2010! So far, the new year has greeted us with some pretty extreme weather conditions! The recent weather though has been a minor diversion from the big question on many people’s minds as to when we are likely to start moving out of recession. Many business people including M&S Chairman Sir Stuart Rose expect things to remain tough in 2010. Teacrate has seen a promising start to the year having been chosen as strategic partner by commercial relocation company Reloc8 Ltd in a four year crate supply agreement. This is significant for us - it is testament to the ongoing commitment that Teacrate gives its customers, underpinned by our investment in market leading products and best in class service. Wednesday 10th December The Noah’s Ark Trust does vital work to help children and young people through the very difficult time of bereavement. Through Britannia, one of Teacrate’s commercial moves customers we have recently donated 100 crates to support the Trust in its move into new premises in Worcestershire. The Trust’s, larger and more spacious new premises will provide the capacity needed for them to work with more children. The site is more favourably located with better parking facilities allowing better access for families. Wednesday 2nd December Almost a fifth of home owners said that they would move because they are simply bored with their current property according to a new survey by Cooperative Bank Mortgages. One quarter even said that they'd had the urge to move again immediately after settling in to a new home! The main reasons for moving home, reported by most people are to get more space and to live closer to work. On average, home owners tend to feel the urge to up sticks and move on again after 7 years - the '7 year itch'! Tuesday 1st December As official sponsors of the Commercial Mover of the Year (‘CMOTY’) awards for the past couple of years, we at Teacrate are enthusiastic supporters of this prestigious event. We have recently been finalising our involvement in the 2010 competition and I am pleased to announce that Teacrate will again be supporting the proceedings through our sponsorship. A three-way joint sponsorship arrangement has been agreed for 2010 involving Teacrate, Reason Global Insurance and Wendover. Looking ahead to the forthcoming awards, it looks set to be another really competitive one, with the industry’s top performers battling it out! Wednesday 25th November Teacrate is planning a customer survey in the near future to help us keep abreast of industry trends and to ensure that the products and services we offer reflect the changing needs of the market place. Customer feedback will tell us how well we are performing and help us identify any gaps in our product and service offerings. It can also give us a helpful steer on trends or issues that may be of concern both now and into the future, for example in the area of sustainability. If you wish to share any thoughts or ideas that you might have into the process at any time, you can do so by e-mailing Teacrate’s Sales Director, Simon Johns on simonj@teacrate.com Friday 20th November PHS Datasafe, the Group’s secure document and data storage specialist has more than doubled its capacity in the 18 months since becoming a PHS company. Across its five facilities, it can now handle 2.5m cubic feet of records or 25 million individual files! This makes the company a leading contender in the marketplace for secure off site storage for boxes, files and documents, including wills, plans, certificates, medical records and HR files. Their sophisticated electronic document retrieval system allows customers access to their documents within 2 hours. They also offer media storage services including remote computer and critical data backup, as well as confidential data destruction. Read more about PHS Datasafe and its services here. Thursday 12th November
We’ve launched a great little special offer for November. There’s a very competitive price on our Archive Boxes for all those filing jobs. Stock up now - after all, what better time to be doing a bit of office de-cluttering before the festive season is upon us! There’s a chance to stock up too on Correx Sheeting if you’re running low. This stuff is brilliant for lots of site protection uses during moves and cost effective because it can be re-used. Domestic Movers - are you aware of Getamover.co.uk? It’s an online leads generation service providing requests for quotations at favourable rates. Through our partnership with Getamover.co.uk we are able to offer you 2 weeks worth of FREE qualified leads. Don’t delay, call Nicola on 07903 313396 for details.
Monday 9th November Existing customer The Whittle Group has shown further long-term commitment to Teacrate with their recent signing of an exclusive 3-year crate supply contract to support their UK wide Business Relocation Division. We are obviously delighted with these developments, and we’ll be doing everything we can to ensure that this relationship goes from strength to strength. It’s pleasing - as a service provider - to see such relationships cementing and to have the reassurance that our customers are seeing real value from the services that we provide.
Friday 30th October
The 2009 Poppy Appeal is well underway with this years campaign focusing on the Armed Forces serving in Afghanistan and their families. We're wearing our poppies here at Teacrate and we have donated some of our ex-rental crates to support the fundraising effort of the Warton & District Branch of the Royal British Legion in Lancashire. The best of luck to all involved there and I'm pleased that we have been of assistance.
Monday 26th October Welcome to the team Mani! Mani Channa has joined us recently from Avis Car Hire to take up a new position within our Telesales team. We have expanded the size of our London based team so that each of our field sales staff may be partnered by an office based ‘buddy’ – all as part of our newly re-focused Four Hats sales strategy. Mani has responsibility for sales and account management in the Scotland and North East regions working in close partnership with our man on the ground there, Dave Ewart. I hear that Mani has settled in very well. All the very best Mani, I hope you enjoy your new venture with Teacrate! Monday 19th October Teacrate – the UK’s Local Crate Rental Company continues on its tour of the UK … that’s our current advertising campaign with Removals & Storage Magazine. We will be appearing in the November edition with a profile of our Livingston Service Centre, and Centre Manager, Andy Green. Congratulations to competition winner David Strank of Stranks Removals who was awarded £50 in credit vouchers for correctly guessing that the Teacrate van was indeed heading north for Livingston. Can you spot the famous Scottish landmark in the background of the advert? Thursday 15th October I’ve been reading about de-cluttering! That’s in relation to selling a home and the idea that there’s an opportunity for domestic removers to offer a pre-sale de-cluttering service which could generate extra revenue in these harder times. We know that tidy and clutter free homes are more attractive to potential buyers and without clutter rooms can appear larger… all good selling points. With the average time taken for a property to sell being 10-12 weeks (and a lot longer in the current climate) – there’s an opportunity for removers to step in and offer an interim de-cluttering service to help clients sell their properties more quickly. This service could be charged for (in terms of container rental and storage) – or alternatively provided as an incentive for the booking of the full move once the house is sold. Interesting! Monday 12th October With Christmas getting ever closer, Teacrate has launched its Christmas campaign directly into the Food and Retail sectors. Supply chains in these sectors face big logistics challenges to move huge volumes and varieties of products to the many thousands of retail outlets in good time for the Christmas buying period. We can actively support these efforts and our Christmas campaign focuses on the benefits of ad hoc and short term crate rental from Teacrate for managing periods of peak demand for storage and transportation. Our network of 9 fully stocked depots across the UK allows us to react quickly and efficiently to demand – delivering crates wherever and whenever they are needed.
Wednesday 7th October
Following the success of last years Movers & Storers Show, Teacrate will be exhibiting again at the 2010 show at the Telford International Centre in February. With stand bookings ahead of where they were last year it looks to be another popular and well attended event. I understand that the show organisers will be launching a new website for the show in November – so look out for that. Our preparations for the show are underway and we look forward to welcoming new and existing customers to our stand. We’re considering showcasing a new product, which I can reveal more about closer to the time. Thursday 1st Oct
Swine flu .... many have had it, or know somebody who's had it, but how will it really affect our businesses? A new report published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) and the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) has warned UK businesses to prepare for staff absence rates of up to 50% - for periods of between 2 and 4 weeks this autumn and winter, as the second wave of Swine Flu is expected to hit. Providing a safe and hygienic workplace is key to preventing the spread of the infection and the PHS Group through their Direct and Washrooms divisions are actively supporting businesses in this area with their new 'No Germs' range of products.
Monday 28th September Continuing on the housing market theme, there is evidence that much of the new house buying (particularly by first time buyers) has been financed substantially by loans from parents, who have provided money for their childrens' mortgage deposits. A recent survey by property website FindaProperty.com showed that nearly half of first time buyers received financial help from their families. Lenders are typically asking for a 25% deposit prior to granting a first time loan - and with many first time buyers struggling to find this sort of cash, the Bank of Mum & Dad is increasingly helping out!
Wednesday 23rd September
The UK economy has begun to emerge from recession but growth next year will be fragile according to a forecast by the CBI. Household consumer spending will remain tight, businesses will be knuckling down and the government will be pulling its reins in. Turning to the housing market, I read that house sales fell in August from July - the first drop this year in fact. But sales in August were still double those of January and were 19% higher than August last year.
Friday 18th September I'm very pleased to report the overall positive feedback I'm getting from our new GB Nationwide customers following their acquisition earlier this year. Our teams across the business have worked very hard over the past couple of months to ensure a smooth and trouble-free transition for ex-GB customers. We are undertaking a programme of communication including personal visits by our Business Development Managers and follow-up service calls from our friendly Telesales team. As a result we are happy to see that many ex-GB cutomers are already enjoying improved crate rental services with Teacrate, re-inforced by access to a wider range of products and the additional support offered through our online tracking and ordering system 'Cratelink'.
Monday 14th September Last week the Government gave the go-ahead for the building of 2,000 new council houses across England. The project is being described as the biggest of its kind in 20 years.... as most social housing is normally built by housing associations. I suspect that the Government is doing this to help the ailing construction industry and to create jobs - as well as to help meet the country's longer term housing needs. Wednesday 9th September Each of Teacrate's market sectors - Removals, Food, Retail and Packaging have always been served by dedicated sector sales people. With the launch of our new initiative 'Operation Four Hats' all members of our sales team will now work across all four of Teacrate's markets within specified geographical territories. Our new approach has been introduced to increase service levels by maximising our use of resources within the existing team as well as to bring about more exposure in our key markets. Thursday 27th August I've been reading some positive news today on the housing market with the Nationwide reporting August as being the fourth consecutive month of house price rises. This is attributed mainly to low interest rates, and the demand for homes continuing to outweigh supply. The mortgage industry are careful to point out that this is not likely to be the start of a housing boom and the feeling here is that there could be a very bumpy road to recovery. Housebuilders are reporting improved trading conditions and are referring to a stabilisation in the housing market. Monday 24th August As England celebrate the Ashes (probably with a shorter and more civilised drinking session than last time!) we've been busy here today with our websites. The PHS Group site is currently being updated and the Marketing Department at PHS has been chasing down volunteers from across the divisions to model for the new home page which will feature staff and products. Graeme Ede, one of our Business Development Managers, took to the wicket for Teacrate, modelling in his hi-viz with a few of our popular crates. Nice one Graeme! I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures! Friday 14th August
If you are in the baking industry you may know that Teacrate works alongside Bakers Basco who manage a pool of circa 2 million bread baskets to various plant bakeries throughout the UK. The group also employs a dedicated asset recovery team in their fight to reduce the number of branded baskets and equipment that is being used illegally. A huge number of baskets are 'lost' each year costing the baking industry millions. Teacrate supports Bakers Basco in the provision of replacement baking trays and equipment where illegal equipment has been seized by Basco's recovery team. Teacrate - with their nationwide coverage, next day delivery and flexible payment options are best placed to offer a viable and cost effective replacement option.
Wednesday 12th August
I'm hearing that crates are becoming a rare commodity in some quarters. In fact, just recently, Teacrate was approached by a large commercial mover because their regular crate supplier was unable to fulfil their orders. Teacrate offers the widest range of products to the market with the widest availability throughout the UK via our network of 9 strategically located and fully stocked depots. Following our acquisition of GB Nationwide, Teacrate is now the only truly national supplier. Monday 10th August I am delighted to announce that on 31st July, Teacrate acquired GB Nationwide Crate Hire. GB Nationwide has an excellent name within the industry and was the number 2 in the market place and our major national competitor. In today’s difficult economic climate this acquisition gives Teacrate the opportunity to further develop and grow its business. Friday 7th August
Teacrate now offers an e-invoicing facility to all its customers, where invoices and account statements can be received via email rather than by post. Its really straightforward to set up - just contact Gurpreet Metharu at GurpreetM@treacrate.com, who can assist you or call our main switchboard on 020 8282 0000. Our e-invoicing option provides added convenience with email now being the main form of communication for many of us. Thursday 30th July Being in the midst of the growing season for fruit and veg right now, Teacrate is seeing a lot of interest in its food crates and trays. And with increasing pressure to use environmentally sustainable products, many suppliers are opting for Returnable Transit Packaging (RTP) over cardboard boxes as the preferred carrier for food products. There are strong cost arguements for using RTP as well. Recently a fruit supplies customer reported that the move to RTP will save the business approximately 60% in packaging costs over the next 3 years. Monday 27th July Any football fans may be interested to know that Teacrate has recently been involved in moving the FA's headquarters from Soho Square to its new purpose built home in Wembley Stadium. Teacrate supplied its longstanding customer, Relocate London with crates for the entire move.
Friday 24th July
One of our leading customers in the food processing industry - Cargill, has presented us with a recognition award for our outstanding contribution to their business and for high achievement in the areas of innovation and customer focus. This is a great accolade for Teacrate, showing the high service levels that we deliver and the commitment of our staff across the UK.
Monday 20th July A lot of people in the PHS Group have been working very hard on the WAWE environmental initiative, which stands for Water, Air, Waste and Energy. It looks like the hard work is paying off - with PHS announcing a 5% reduction in its carbon footprint. Read more about how this has been achieved on the PHS Group site.
Friday 17th July
With The Ashes first test taking place in Cardiff last week, I was really pleased to be able to entertain some of our customers at the SWALEC stadium in Cardiff.
The PHS Group are sponsoring the National Indoor Cricket Centre at the ground which meant we were able to get tickets for this great sporting event. A fantastic venue, and even if you’re not a Cricket fan it’s a great place to visit.
Our customers, Premier Movers, Morgan Cole, Comet and DTZ certainly enjoyed the event and good weather held out for us!
Friday 3rd July 2009
Good news for retail and logistics customers. Teacrate has acquired the manufacturing tool for our popular mid-sized retail tote - the LC2. This means that we can assure availability and supply to the market. It also means that we have been able to introduce a number of improvements to the design of the LC2 based on customer feedback. Click here to read more.
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