Tuesdays pluses and minuses….

Plus. Our bank is Nat West, and our bank manager is Simon Gill, and we had a meeting with him this morning. He is by far the best manager we’ve ever had. Makes us feel he’s always on our side, always up to date with what’s happening in our business, always straight with us, always polite, pleasant and nice to deal with, gives sound advice too.

Plus. We’re on the High Growth programme run by Winning Pitch. Our consultant is Jed Hassid. We had a meet with him this afternoon, and despite conspiring to thwart him at every turn and suck him into the minutae of our business, he manages to keep pointing us in the right direction and we’re making good progress to achieve good growth next year. It’s going to be an exciting year for Workhouse Marketing.

Plus. Finished a room set shoot today. All credit to Ange, Nicky, Woody, Rob, for making it happen and the pics look superb. Workhouse Studios doing the job it was built for.

Plus. New Stax gardening catalogue. Got first copy today, 164 pages, looks great!

Plus Plus. Heidi. The Studio. For working like Trojans.

Plus Plus. A couple of quick halves in the Ribchester Arms on the way home.

Plus Plus. Wins for both Welsh teams in the Championship Swansea City and Cardiff City. Both promoted to Premier League?

Minus. Calder Services. Came out to mend my boiler which was cutting out, changed a part and said it was fixed and off they went. Wrong, boiler still cutting out. Came back again today and changed a different part, and fixed it. Still charged me for the visit that didn’t work and the part I didn’t need…..a bit miffed.

Minus. The Lurgy. David Hibbert, Andy Constantine off sick. Hurry up back boys we’re missing you.

Minus. Holby City. Sat in Living room at 8.35 with piece of apple tart, looked up to see woman on operating table with chest cut wide open and all insides on view. Not needed BBC, honestly it adds nothing to the show.

Minus. Rain. OK God, enough’s enough.

So much to say, so much to do, and long live the Queen!

When I started blogging I thought that it would last about three days then I’d run out of things to say. But at the moment there seems to be so much going on that I don’t know where to start. We’ve just purchased a brand new, all singing, all dancing, software system that will basically run the entire business and we’ve started the training process. Nightmare or nirvana, no doubt all will be revealed in due course. We are on the High Growth programme run by Winning Pitch looking at all aspects of the business so we develop effective strategies, structures, procedures and policies to enable us to grow.  We are in the process of changing our accountant, they don’t know it yet but they show so little interest in us, I doubt very much if they even know we’ve got a blog let alone read it. What’s more they have cocked up the wages again this month (it is virtually every month now).

We have the Christmas do to sort out (delegated!), and the relatively famous Workhouse Christmas video to shoot that’s if we can come up with something which is better than the previous five. I’m amazed it’s five years since we started e-mailing video Christmas cards, ahead of the game or what!  I’ll try and retrieve the old ones and put them on this blog nearer the time.

We also have an important photo shoot in the photography studio this week and next, set build, classy styling, the works. We are heavily involved in the launch of Blackburn Youth Zone (Nicky is doing an amazing job), and we’ve just nailed the massive 164 page Stax Trade Centres garden catalogue (Our Stax team are equally amazing).This is on top of the fact that most of our existing clients are active and busy, and we’re winning a fair few new clients. We shouldn’t be surprised though, we have good people at Workhouse Marketing, and they’re doing a good job.

To switch subjects very quickly I didn’t expect to say this, as I’ve no strong views on the Royal Family either way, but I’ve been watching and enjoying ‘The Queen’ on Channel 4 this week.

Emilia Fox and Samantha Bond as The Queen on Channel 4

It started on Sunday and is on every night for 5 nights I think. It’s a sort of drama documentary incorporating a bit of modern history, and is really good mix of original footage, interviews with people involved, and a little drama with five different actresses playing the Queen at different stages of her life. It’s incredible to think that she has been on the throne for 56 years. Many things have happened during our lifetime, but the one celebration many of us have yet to experience is the coronation of a new monarch.

As a 12 year old I do remember the Investiture of Prince Charles as the Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle in 1969. In Briton Ferry, the town I was born and brought up in, in South Wales, we were given the day off school, we had this amazing street party and fireworks (mainly bangers) and the house was decked out with bunting, everybody was in fancy dress, it was just a fantastic occasion. I really hope we don’t have a coronation for a long time, but when it comes, I hope the country has just as good a celebration.

Investiture of Prince Charles

Stax Trade Centres sales figures lift the gloom.

I’m really chuffed to bits today. I have to be honest though and say that at 4pm yesterday I was not chuffed and definitely feeling a bit  morose (like Gordon Brown reading a copy of The Sun),  ground down by the normal detritus that lands on top of an MD during a normal week. Unhappy staff (is it possible to keep all the people happy all the time?), a potential bad debt (even tho a small one, it brings with it an aggravation you can do without), the need to spend more money on our servers (is it never ending?), the outside lights don’t work (will the electrician ever turn up), the big new business win that wasn’t (a big budget pitch that turned out to be not so big a budget after all). The rain was lashing at the window, it was dark, and I was pretty fed up. And this is on top of Wales being beaten by the All Blacks….again.

But then..a call from number one client…with the news that they have just had the best single week of sales in their entire history! I’m talking about Stax Trade Centres, the DIY wholesaler and cash and carry with it’s head office in Manchester. They were our first client when we started working with them nearly 18 years ago ( I think they were turning over about £4 Million per annum then, it’s more like £80 Million per annum now). An excellent company, really nice people.

I have to take my hat off to Eddie Brady and David Hibbert from Stax. This year against all market trends they bravely invested £13 Million in a big new branch right across the road from their smaller old branch in Manchester. It opened in September, and with a concerted marketing campaign including radio advertising, 48 sheets, direct mail, instore promotions, and e-mail broadcasting, and a BIG activity week in-store, last week was their highest grossing week, not only for the Manchester Branch, but for the company as a whole with it’s Birmingham, Bristol, and Leeds depots recording top three sales weeks in their history too.

What’s more remarkable is that Stax customers are the Independent Retail sector, and the DIY tradesmen, both of which are two of the most affected sectors by the recession. This is good news. Not only for Stax, but for the economy as a whole…if our independent shop keepers are buying stock then their confidence is growing, and if our tradesmen are buying their tools and materials then it means the construction industry is starting to work again.

It also cheered me up no end. And what’s more, the sun is shining, it’s Friday and  it’s worth all the hassle of running a business when you know that what we do for our clients, works for our clients. Well done to the Stax team here at Workhouse Marketing…Campo, Wendy, Angeline, Andy, Ben, Martin and Nita. Great job.

You can check out Stax Trade Centre website below

www.staxtradecentres.co.uk

And keep up with what’s happening at Stax in the trade press at….

http://www.diyweek.net/search.asp?so=suppliers&keywords=Stax+Trade+Centres&category=0

You won’t get ‘shafted’ at Stax

Radio advertising is one of those mediums which can go horribly wrong if not executed properly, and so we were a little unsure about trialling it for Stax by putting our faith in another creative team.

Fortunately the guys at talkSPORT were on the ball, and came up with shed load of good ideas. In the end, the team decided on a parody of the 70s cult classic film Shaft, with the line ‘You won’t get Shafted at Stax’ underpinning the campaign.

The campaign, which is running for a total of 3 months will feature heavily on talkSPORT, Key 103 and Magic, as is backed up by 48-sheet billboard advertising with Titan Outdoor. Stax are confident that the profile of the brand will be elevated to new levels, and early signs are good with the Manchester branch having has just had their most successful week ever!

The multi-channel campaign, which is clearly labeled ‘Strictly Trade Only’ is aimed at the trade and retail market, and comes on the back of such strong support from the Stax suppliers. Supported by e-marketing and direct mail sales promotions, this is the biggest campaign of its type in Stax history.

Stax Joint Managing Director, David Hibbert, commented, “With a branch double the size of the old Manchester we inevitably need to strengthen awareness of the Stax brand and maximise footfall into the new site, and initial signs are very positive.”