The Masters Plan

Christmas is Coming!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Chapman) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:09:00 +0000

Christmas is coming, your warehouse is getting fat! Give us some pennies and we'll sort your pallets out!!

New Pallet Sticker

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Chapman) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:50:00 +0000

Our latest flyer telling you more about us!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Chapman) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 08:51:00 +0000

Stop material price hikes ruining your margins!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Chapman) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 09:07:00 +0000

Following recent account review meetings with our customers, we have been told about huge raw material price increases that are having a massive impact on bottom line profits. In some cases, costs have risen by as much as 35% which is prompting enquiries for bulk storage in order to beat the price hikes and fix budgets.

Packaging News have reported that adhesives maker Henkel, ink group Flint and polymer manufacturer Wacker Polymers recently revealed more hikes.

Henkel is to increase the price of its adhesives by 10-15% with immediate effect, while Flint Group is upping the price of its narrow web inks by 5-8% from July. Wacker, meanwhile, is to raise its prices by up to €80 per tonne from July.

The companies announced the rises amid a spate of price rises in the sector, which producers say are linked to the growing cost of raw materials.

According to Reuters, French tyremaker Michelin kicked off a fresh round of price rises in Europe recently, passing on a spike in raw materials such as natural rubber, synthetic rubber, steel and oil.

The increases, to take effect before July 1, will hit both consumers and businesses, likely adding to price inflation and possibly slowing economic growth.

We are here to help you beat the price rises and therefore save you money. Talk to us now!

Thought for today!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Chapman) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 08:03:00 +0000

The Common Law of Business Balance is a meditation on price attributed to John Ruskin. It reads as follows:

It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little.
When you pay too much, you lose a little money -- that is all.
When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.
The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot -- it can't be done.
If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.

This is a classic quote on the possible folly of automatically choosing low cost as the best way to make a purchase decision. It appeals to those who believe, or who want to persuade others to believe, that price is a possible indicator of quality.

Never buy on price – think of the quality of the service you are buying - That’s why Masters is what it is!

That’s it! Phase I of the racking is now complete!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Chapman) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 07:31:00 +0000

Thought I’d post some pictures so that you can see how productive we’ve been over the past few weeks.

Lots of enquiries from loads of different sources. Some wanting up to 2,000 pallet spaces, some wanting only 250 pallet spaces. It’s good to think that we can be a small company’s main warehousing provider, as well as offering overspill warehousing to a larger company when required.

I never knew that racking could be so exciting!!

We are so lucky to have such a great team of staff. The operations side of Masters, as I’ve probably said before, just happens! Nothing is too much trouble.

Well done Linda Mackenzie at DRC Polymers in Soham!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Chapman) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:42:00 +0000

Linda was the first person out of the hat when she returned our customer survey and therefore won £100 of vouchers of her choice. Linda’s daughter has just given birth to Linda’s second grandchild, so the vouchers are going to come in very handy!

We were interested to find out from our customers why they used Masters and what is is that they thought were our unique selling points, so we sent out a survey which was headed: “What does Masters mean to you?”

We received many wonderful comments (a selection of which are outlined below) and from them, we have been able to surmise that it is the team of people that make Masters the success it is. We offer good customer service at an affordable price. Our attention to detail and willingness to literally go the extra mile for our customers is very much appreciated by all who use us.

“Staff are always pleasant and very helpful.”
“Collections are always made on time.”
"Our customers are pleased with service from Masters."
"Deliveries always arrive in good condition and on time.”
“Friendly, efficient, polite and flexible.”
“Patient, diligent, thorough.”
“Affordability – Reliability – Professionalism – Availability.”
“Master provide an extremely personal, very honest, trustworthy, competitively priced service which is why our company highly rates Masters and uses them for our logistical problems.”
“Good reliable service.”

Well done Linda! And a huge thank you to our customers for their continued support!

What a glorious day!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Chapman) — Mon, 24 May 2010 12:48:00 +0000

Ever had one of those days where everything just seems to be going right?

Well today, I'm having just such a day! The sun is shining, I've got a nice breeze coming through the office and every person I've called today has been incredibly nice! Perhaps its because of my own frame of mind? Who knows, but if you're one of the people I've talked to this morning - thank you!

I often wonder why people can sometimes be rude to me on the phone - I put it down to them having a bad day and move onto the next one - but luckily, I haven't had any of those yet today. It was Plato who said: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." I'll try to remember that when my day takes a nose-dive!! LOL!

How do you find a needle in a haystack?

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Chapman) — Fri, 21 May 2010 10:33:00 +0000

Perhaps not a needle in a haystack, but a potential customer looking for 500+ pallet spaces in a warehouse would be handy. You must be out there somewhere, it's just trying to find you that's going to take the time (unless of course, you were to just pick up the phone and call me - but I very much doubt that will happen!! LOL!)

Who noticed that I can't add up?

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Chapman) — Thu, 20 May 2010 07:57:00 +0000

Of course I meant to say that we've purchased 3 new vehicles. TWO x 18 tonnes and ONE x 7.5 tonnes! A calculator is now on my Christmas wish list!

Everything is moving so fast here!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Chapman) — Thu, 20 May 2010 07:34:00 +0000

Phase One of our racking project is now complete!
Our racking is now installed and ready; we’ve just got to wait for our new forklift, which should be here in about 3 weeks time and then we can start filling the racks to capacity. How exciting!

New vehicles!
We’ve purchased 3 new vehicles - One x 18 tonnes and 1 x 7.5 tonnes. The vehicles were previously on a lease agreement. Once the leases expired we decided to buy them to reduce our costs. We will run them for a further 3 years.

New offices!
As you will see from my first post, we have moved out of the portacabins that we inhabited for the past 5 years and have moved into purpose built offices on site. It’s really good having all the operations of the business in one place – communication, which was good before, is now excellent!

New warehouse lighting!
We are replacing the lighting in our warehouse. In order to improve carbon emissions, we are replacing the existing with low energy, individually switched units. We are hoping that the carbon trust will issue us with an interest free loan, which will be paid for by the savings we will make by installing the new lighting.

I must get my camera out next week and do a David Bailey!!

Oh! The joys of Business Development!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Chapman) — Wed, 19 May 2010 10:36:00 +0000

I've Twittered and blogged and Facebooked and LinkedIn, I've even found Jigsaw that, for those of you who don't know about it, is like a 'swap shop' for business contacts. Great find! As you can see, I've taught myself how to link them all up, so that YOU can jump from one to another - all this excitement is just too much!

If all that wasn't enough, I've stumbled across this guy who says that I don't have to make any cold calls anymore. Fantastic! Shall we all go home?

I've downloaded the first 10 chapters (that I can have free apparently) and apart from having my brain addled, he still doesn't seem to be getting to the point! I think 'the point' is probably going to be at the start of Chapter 11 (call me cynical!). He did add a quote at the start, that kept me reading this far:

“Oh no, I haven’t failed 5,000 times. I’ve succeeded in finding 5,000 different ways that you cannot possibly build a light bulb.”, which is apparently a quote from Thomas A. Edison,on his progress during his quest for the incandescent electric lamp.

I'm not sure which part of the quote I read. Was it a subliminal message to tell me that without his help, I'm a complete failure? Probably. Whether or not I'll get to the good bit is yet to be seen. I'll keep you posted!

I decided to see if I could find some more positive quotes to keep me going!

"Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another."
- Walter Elliott

Then Albert Einstein came onto the scene. He's a bit heavy, but the first one I came across was relevant to my activities of the past few days

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”

Watch out world! When I get really into this virtual marketing world - I will be invincible!!!!

Then the next one hit me. “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” Yep! It's going to be hard.

Then I hit one that worried me: “Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.”

Last week, I hadn't even heard about a blog and I certainly didn't know about twittering (in fact, I'm still a bit confused!) and this week my picture seems to be everywhere.

HELP! EVERYONE IS GOING TO BE LAUGHING AT ME!............ What the hell - I admire my audacity! Others are just going to have to live with it!

One thing I am learning though, is that to network is to find lots of like-minded people who are interested in business development. We want to work with people who want to grow their businesses, because we want to grow Masters. Bring it on........!

One little aside which amused me:

I was on a stall last weekend in aid of our local amateur dramatics group. It was a 'make us an offer' stall. We had this awful green glass vase type thing. It didn't have much going for it, but it did have a lid on it! There was also a green necklace, which wasn't alot prettier. No-one looked at them, so we decided that we would sell them as a set. I decided that if no-one NEEDED them, then I would create a WANT for them. So, the next woman I engaged with (sorry zoomed in on with the sole purpose of getting rid of these dreadful objects)was so convinced of the positive advantages of having these wonderful objects on her dressing table, that she just WANTED them. Hey presto! A sale! And she even offered me £5 for them! (Apparently, she walked away with the goods in her bag muttering the words "but I don't even have a dressing table")....

........selling ice to eskimos comes to mind!! LOL!

Pendulum Clock

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Chapman) — Tue, 18 May 2010 14:22:00 +0000

WITH THIS WONDERFUL CLOCK, YOU'LL ALWAYS KNOW WHAT THE TIME IS!

Pendulum Clock: "Keep track of the time with this stylish pendulum clock. Edit the settings of the clock to change the color and to make it tick and play Westminster Chimes."

A newsletter - but without news?

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Chapman) — Tue, 18 May 2010 10:45:00 +0000

I decided that I would start a newsletter for Masters, to send to all our customers. Great idea! But what to write about?

In order that the newsletter is relevant to the customers, I emailed them all to ask what subjects they would like included. I want to create a publication that is industry specific, something that will answer many of their questions but, to date, I’ve only had two replies. One from an employee who wants me to raise awareness of the Disability Discrimination Act and one who would like me to publish an article based on Learning and Development in the workplace.

My background is in recruitment and I’ve had a bit of a spell in a marketing, so I have a little knowledge of these items and I can incorporate them into a general category, but I would dearly like to write about something I know nothing about – ie the industry I have just joined. It is, afterall, one of the easiest and quickest way to learn - from the inside, out.

I want to learn what companies really need from their logistics supplier and what fundamental problems they have historically experienced, so that I can raise awareness of the issues and hopefully go to some lengths to overcome them.

Does anyone have any views/news/problems/topics they would like discussed?

Any input would be greatly appreciated. You can send it to me directly by clicking here.

This just struck me as very funny!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Chapman) — Tue, 18 May 2010 10:14:00 +0000

This guy would NEVER be employed by Masters!!

THE WAREHOUSE

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Chapman) — Mon, 17 May 2010 11:37:00 +0000

We're in the process of completing the first stage of our racking plans. Makes the warehouse look so much bigger - it really is amazing! We must take some pictures soon as it totally transforms the whole appeal. Adrian, our warehouse manager, thinks Christmas has come early. If anyone knows of anyone who needs pallet storage in an excellent location in East Anglia, close to the ports of Felixstowe and Harwich, then please get in touch with me. We're nice people, who work hard to ensure that our customers get a first class service. In all seriousness, I have NEVER seen an operations department like this one; which makes it so much easier to sell our service. How many times have you had sales promising you one thing, only to have operations mess it up? Not at Masters! Nothing is too much trouble.

The next phase in the Masters plan

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Chapman) — Fri, 14 May 2010 11:36:00 +0000

Local company Masters of Stretham have been key players in logistics, warehousing and distribution since 1982.

Following a year which saw many local businesses struggle due to the recession, the management at Master’s have steadfastly steered the company to the next level in their development strategy and are pleased to announce that they have now consolidated their warehousing capability to offer over 100,000 sq ft of secure warehousing on one site and moved into purpose built office space.

The company is owned and managed by Paul Upton and Deanna Wood, together with Operations Director Mark Stoodley, from their head office in Stretham near Ely and has built its reputation on honesty, integrity and excellence in its field, offering clients a one-stop shop for logistical services.

Joining the prestigious network of Palletline in 2006, Masters have been instrumental in paving the way forward to further improve logistics and warehousing solutions enabling them to offer their customers secure and reliable overnight distribution of palletised freight.

Currently operating a combination of 15 HGV and LGV vehicles, providing 100,000 sq ft of warehousing space and employing 30 staff, along with the support of 70 Palletline member companies Masters Logistical strive to offer first class innovative logistical solutions.

If you are currently seeking solutions to your warehousing and logistical needs, contact sarah@masterslogistical.co.uk, or call Masters on 01353 648222.