Taking flight!

It’s Friday afternoon and the rain has held off since about 10am, yippee!  It’s the weekend of the Bournemouth Air Festival so the traffic getting back to Bournemouth tonight is going to be interesting but once home I shall be joining thousands of others to watch the dusk flight.  Not only will the Red Arrows be taking flight over the weekend but our wood burning season has also taken off with a vengeance.  Last week the weather took a dip and our phone started ringing.  Andy, Zara and I spent a very successful day at the Gillingham & Shaftesbury Show last week.  If any of you came down we hope you enjoyed the day as much as e did.  The weather was perfect, there was a slight premature autumnal nip in the air and the toasted Marshmallows were flying out, the best uptake on the mallows in a long while! 

Plastered & ready for painting

The new showroom has effectively ground to a halt, this could be seen as a negative thing but in truth we simply don’t have any free labour to put on it at the moment.  The building side of the business is incredibly busy and with the wood burning acceptances coming in thick and fast we are fully booked week on week.  From a personal perspective I can breath a sigh of relief.  With initial thoughts that the showroom would open mid season and the intention of throwing a big open day to launch it I was having a few reservations on how we would manage this successfully and produce an opening worth talking about.  With things delayed it is looking more likely that we will open officially in the New Year, that way we can do things properly.  Watch this space for latest updates and details of the opening.

 

 

 

 

Stuv 21-125

Sarah is on holiday this week, she has been missed……It’s amazing how having that extra person around just takes the pressure off slightly.  Nikki is off next week and then we will be back to full strength again.  Rich and I are off to Jetmaster on Tuesday for a training day.  We’ll be looking at the Stuv range in some detail as well which I am quite looking forward to.   

 

You can duct hot air off of the Stuv’s and they look quite flash, they aren’t cheap and we don’t sell hundreds of them as they are quite a specialised range but it will be really good to learn the more intricate details of their workings. 

That’s about it for this week.  Time to wrap up for the day and fight my way through the traffic to get home.  There are lots of advantages to living in Bournemouth but the best way to be going on a day like today is out of town!

Ellingham & Ringwood in full swing............

It’s the weekend and it’s my Saturday to cover the showroom.  It’s a perfect time to catch up on my blog.  It’s been a busy week this week, Andy returned from his charity work adventure in Rwanda, wood burn season seems to be starting already with the phone ringing off the hook, despite the glorious weather we’ve been having and we’ve been preparing for the Ellingham and Ringwood show which is being held today.  Rich and Chris drew the short straws to man the stand and are currently tucking in to a bacon bap no doubt with a nice cup of tea close by. We had Zara going off for a 10 day break but not before we showered her with gifts and indulged in a good slab of Coffee and Walnut cake to celebrate her (she’ll kill me for telling you) 40th birthday!  Lou made the cake and what a dab hand she is at it too…..it’s great being part of a company full of multitalented people!

The new showroom is coming along nicely, I’ll post a few more photo’s next time, it’s amazing how quickly it is moving.  We’ve ordered a new range of baskets that will be with us shortly all ready for the season and we have been given leave to start testing our new computer system which has been in the making for almost 9 months now.  So you see, with all this going on it’s been tricky to find the time for an update.

The system is very exciting, more so for the girls than the boys.  It will enable us to correlate all of our client’s details in one place instead of jumping around from this screen to that, looking up various information.  Sarah and I have been testing it this week and as with every new toy it is taking a while to get to grips with.  Being the admin queens that we are we have the determination to master it, we just need to get through all the teething problems that always comes with these things.  Our Zara & IT chap have done a fantastic job though and we are looking forward to a much more efficient working process, Yey!!

Andy’s trip to Rwanda was full of adventure, he managed to survive the mosquitos and a bout of food poisoning which laid him flat for a day or so.  He met a whole host of interesting people from MP’s to Business Owners and Leaders of Charity organisations, truly hobnobbing with those in the know.  He was very keen to tell us all his stories on his return and although he was obviously quite tired after arriving home on Sunday afternoon he still made it in to work on Monday morning. Andy’s teaching skills came in handy whilst out there and he got to experience real African living whilst staying with a family in a more remote region, a cold shower in a mud hut was the height of luxury.  It was pleasing to see him back, we’ll await his next big adventure whatever that turns out to be.

Display at New Forest Show

Sarah lapping up the heat!

Having just spoken to the boys at Ellingham, it sounds like they are having a busy day.  We attended the New Forest Show two weeks ago, 'Hi' to anyone that saw us over there.  Tuesday was unbearably hot…..Wow, it wasn’t fun tucked up in our tent with the sun beaming down, we let the fires burn out around 10am and most people were simply wandering with no particular place to go just trying to stay cool.  It was the quietest day of the show for us, we were quite concerned that it may continue that way but thankfully over the following two days the temperature dropped and a cooling breeze materialised. By Thursday things were back on track with a number of people seriously considering renewables for their heating solutions.  There were a larger number of renewable enquiries this year which is interesting and as always the wood burners generated a huge amount of interest.  Not only was it productive for the business but I was quite pleased with myself, with such an array of local crafts and businesses I took the opportunity to get a few Christmas presents under my belt…….Oh No…I hear you moan.  I feel quite smug now after all it’s only 19 ½ weeks to go!!!

We're Back.....

It’s been a while since I wrote our very first blog and sadly last year I ran out of time to do it!  Since then the business has really taken off…….so we thought we’d say hello again so that you can follow us through our journey of expansion.  This morning the office is quiet and I am sat here wondering where to begin.  Today is Nikki’s birthday, that’s a good starting point.  Nikki is our new addition to the showroom team, she’s been with us almost 5 months and she is doing really well.  We were very lucky to find someone who fits in the team so comfortably and understands the way that small businesses work…..thats a bonus it has to be said!

Frank checking out the new unit.  Yes...he's still here!

Not only have we employed Nikki but      we’ve also taken on Louise as a part time  addition to accounts and we’ve trained up another HETAS installer.  The biggest news is that we’ve taken on another unit.  It all happened very quickly and almost in a flash things started moving.  Just after Christmas half the team moved to the offices at13A, we were outgrowing the unit at 13D and something had to give.  We have just started work on the downstairs which, with a little bit of jiggery pokery will become our brand new, shiny, Renewables Showroom. 

Work on this started 3-4 weeks ago.  If you’ve ever been down to see us at Riverside you will know that we have a large parking area at the front of the unit…..if you come down these days it is filled with Low Carbon vans and a hive of activity with our men going in and out pushing things along.  We’ve got some exciting things planned for the showroom, I can’t divulge too much at the moment but suffice to say major discussions over colour schemes and floor materials seem to be dominating meetings these days!!

The unit was an empty shell when we moved in, a number of walls sectioning off smaller rooms and not the most effective use of space.  It’s changing before our eyes though, we have ripped out the walls and have put a mezzanine in, the insulation is almost finished and the plaster board is going up on some of the walls.  All of the first fix electrics are in so at least we know we will have light in those dark winter months and the position for my new desk has been decided….Yippee!....It doesn't look much now but the photo copier has lived a happy life there for many years so I think maybe I will to. 

We never like to do things by half measures and so in a weeks time we kick off the show season which means our Low Carbon Trailer will be back on the road and we’ll be travelling around the Dorset region setting up at a number of shows in the area.  The New Forest is our first outing this year, starting on the 29^th July we’ll be there for three days. Chris and I will be covering all three days this year, hoping for some good weather.  If anyone fancies a good day out come down and see us, we’ll be situated on 3^rd avenue, near the chickens and the public conveniences …..the silver lining in this is not having to walk 3 miles every time we need to spend a penny!

The weather has been fabulous this last week or so but despite the temperatures people still seem to be thinking about the winter and we are seeing a steady flow of prospective customers through the doors.  It’s such a good feeling to be involved with an industry that is growing from strength to strength.  We are looking forward to another busy season and to seeing some of our old customers who we hope will come back and see us for their firelighters and glass cleaner.  We’ve just had a delivery of new companion sets, I am keen to get them open as so I will leave you in anticipation and I’ll let you in on a preview on my next blog.  Right…..where are the scissors!