JMLegraph Autumn 2018

2018

AUTUMN

Lights, Camera,

ACTION! Behind the scenes from JML's very latest Films starring Marc Gill

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Also in this edition

PD Update

Ben takes a BROWS through future products [p18]

ARMAGEDDON OR OPPORTUNITY?

Our CEO is feeling very optimistic!

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Through the Keogh Putting the Finishing Touches to JML's most ambitious Christmas ever

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Contents

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ARMAGEDDON OR OPPORTUNITY?

MUDDY OR NOT HERE WE COME

By Ken Daly

By Vanessa Gordino

5

THROUGH THE KEOGH

By Brian Keogh

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PD UPDATE

By Ben Thomas and Kelvin Lee

14

CLASS OF 86'

By Stacey Kawooya

By Catherine Campbell

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16

10

By Elaine Francis

By Chris Scally

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12

Q&A

By Giles McHenry

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BABY BOOM IN CUSTOMER SERVICES

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GOLF DAY FOR ENRYCH OXFORDSHIRE

By David Chrisp

THE LIFE OF THE SENIOR CUSTOMER SERVICE ADVISOR

A DAY IN THE LIFE

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By David Chrisp

By Jack Morgan

PRODUCTION

THE GLAMOROUS LIFE OF A NEWBIE PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

By Louise Giddings

JACK'S WEDDING

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18

22 POEM

By Philippa James

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CALENDAR

FROM NUMBER CRUNCHING TO...

CAMERA,LIGHTS, AND DESIGN!

By Hanh Ly

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CROSSWORD

By Ian Watson

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Ken Daly - Chief Executive Officer

Armageddon or Opportunity?

K

IM JONG UN seems to be behaving himself these days.

Only this time last year I was beginning to seriously worry about nuclear Armageddon as Kim appeared to be a real threat to civilisation’s very existence. Not helped of course by the bellicose dispatches from our friend to the west who was characteristically pugnacious in response. Now, thankfully toys are back in prams, and in North Korea they are apparently being dismantled, albeit not as fast as we would like.

So now that one of the planet’s most worrying existential dangers has been diminished, we might ask the question, what are the biggest threats to JML? And more importantly, what are we doing about them?

This summer, we generated record sales in retail.

no longer making any money. And as far as TV goes, well my kids hardly ever watch it, let alone see a TV commercial.

JML has a long relationship with Retail and with TV. So in response to a rapidly changing environment we have been developing alternative routes to market for our products and alternative media to advertise our brands. For example, we’ve been trading online since 1999, the very earliest days of ecomm, and over the years we have continuously upgraded our web operation. We plan shortly to launch the very latest iteration of our site on a new platform with a new state of the art Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application. To advertise we are increasingly using Social for our core JML branded business, and we invested last year to buy a majority share of Brand Evangelists for Beauty Ltd (BE) who use Social almost exclusively as their way of reaching consumers.

Many new and exciting developments are in the pipeline that reduce our future reliance on bricks and mortar and on TV advertising. For example the launch of Medicap Nutrition UK Ltd, our JV with a Swiss coffee manufacturer who have developed a unique range of nutrition products served through coffee capsules, enables us to develop a huge business through continuity programmes online. Yet we are not about to chop our spend on TV just yet, nor are we losing focus on traditional retail. Quite the contrary.

Despite what you might expect, JML continues to see great results from both channels. This summer, we generated record sales in retail. This was partly due to the fact that we had really strong products that benefitted from the exceptionally warm weather.

But this just goes to show that when we get the product right, with the ideal marketing (predominantly TV), backed by JML’s first class team, our customers will flock to retail stores to buy. And of course they also go

The challenges of bricks and mortar retail and the way in which TV is consumed could be the two most immediate concerns. We are seeing mass casualties on the high street – Maplin went bust, House of Fraser being the latest to go through administration and John Lewis are Autumn 2018

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to our website and our call centre.

Whilst many of us are watching TV on catch up in the evenings, JML’s core daytime audience are much more likely to watch linearly during the day and less likely to skip ads. Although, in case you are wondering, we only pay for the eyeballs that actually see our ads, not for the spots that are skipped.

I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on the biggest threats to the JML business and your ideas to conquer the challenges. In my view the single biggest peril to any organisation would be an inability to adapt. Stand still and you will quickly get overtaken. Fail to evolve and you will rapidly become extinct.

JML has a great track record of being innovative and adaptable. For example, over 70% of our revenue this year will come from products we didn’t sell at all two years ago.

That demonstrates our ability to constantly reinvent ourselves. Yet we have not scaled back bricks and mortar distribution or TV advertising because both continue to be great success stories for us. The moment that changes we shall be ready to react. Meanwhile we think there is still plenty of potential to grow our Retail distribution, and whilst the media landscape is rapidly changing, TV

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remains the most powerful medium for the time being.

There is no reason then why JML cannot grow fast over the coming couple of years so that we can achieve our aim of doubling our sales.

Ultimately, JML is an innovative consumer product company. Despite the great changes that are taking place in society and the way that people shop, the big global consumer products companies are, on the whole, doing extremely well. People want to buy products that make their lives easier, in fact they want to do this more than ever before. There is no reason then why JML cannot grow fast over the coming couple of years so that we can achieve our aim of doubling our sales.

Video content has also been core to JML’s model and online great ‘films’ are just as important as they have been on TV. In order to grow fast we need to create products with promotional films that translate into international markets much better

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than those in the past. Very good progress is being made in this respect with some great new content coming from our Production department.

A global blockbuster infomercial must surely be within our grasp, and this would alone have a huge impact on our sales.

We should be agnostic about where the shopper buys our products. We will get to the customers, wherever they are. In order to do that, we need to be determined, tenacious and we need to go faster. And that’s all about having fantastic people who can deliver our vision of a JML product in every home. We always have had a truly great team and it has been strengthened by several new additions in recent months. I’ve spent time with those who are new at Chiswick and I am very excited indeed by the depth and strength of the people we now have on board. The future at JML certainly does look full of exciting opportunities.

Back to world politics, I’m optimistic too about what has been happening on the Korean Peninsula. But focusing closer to home makes me realise I have written this entire article without mentioning the dreaded word that starts with a B, ends in T and has an X in the middle. I wonder what Kim thinks about that one!

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Through the Keogh I

T WAS A TRULY SIZZLING SUMMER FOR OUR SALES IN THE UK AND IRELAND. We had a fantastic line up of products on TV that were really suited to the tropical weather conditions we experienced.

In retail, Finishing Touch Flawless continues to be an absolute monster of a product with over 725,000 units being sold through our customer's tills to the end of September. It's on TV right through to Christmas with no signs of it slowing down. Chillmax Pillow also sold in big numbers with around 300,000 units finding their way into customers’ homes.

Brian Keogh - Chief Sales Officer

We are running 6 short-form campaigns to drive Retail and 5 long form campaigns to push Direct sales.

We think we have a strong line-up; the short-form products are: Finishing Touch Flawless & Rechargeable, Finishing Touch Flawless Mirror, Super Bright Switch, Copper Stone Pans, Hollywood Pants, Handy Heater. The long form products are: Finishing Touch Flawless Legs, Kangoo Hot Bag, Handy Heater, EZ Bed, Egg Sitter.

All of the products have tested well, and we are confident of seeing some fantastic numbers.

All of the products have tested well, and we are confident of seeing some fantastic numbers.

The big winner over the summer on JML Direct was Arctic Air, we had our best ever week of sales in week 27 with sales hitting over £350,000 which was a fantastic result.

We need to ensure that we maximise availability in Retail and on Direct and leave no stone unturned to gain every sale possible at what is always a challenging (but extremely fast-paced and exciting) time for everyone. No one does it better than we do and I

am confident that together, we can deliver a great result in the UK and Ireland.

Lots of exciting things have been happening around the world and our International team have been busy scouring the globe for new partners and selling products to our existing customer base. They have secured some big orders from France, USA, Eastern Europe and Australia / New Zealand to name a few. As you have seen from Ken’s recent email, we recently met with our International partners at a trade show in the US and the response to our new products and films was fantastic. We are now giving the team the ammunition they need to start growing our International division at pace and we need to ensure that we keep supporting them with better products and better films on an ongoing basis.

I will send out another sales update when our Christmas trading gets underway in November but in advance of that, I would like to thank you all for your hard work and dedication and for continuing to make JML the great place to be a part of that it is. Your efforts are always appreciated and highly valued.

Christmas line-up

Despite all the doom and gloom around in the news, we had the right products, with the right advertising and if you give the people what they want, they will still spend money.

NOW THAT SUMMER IS OVER, ALL OUR FOCUS IS ON DELIVERING OUR BEST EVER CHRISTMAS. It’s the busiest time of the year for Retail and Direct and we have a real chance to make this a record-breaking year for us.

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PDUpdate

Ben Thomas - Product Development Director

I

T WAS AROUND THIS TIME last year in the JMLegraph that I announced we were launching Finishing Touch Flawless in the UK, and I was cautiously optimistic that it was going to be

a huge hit for us. I think it is fair to say that the product exceeded all expectations and it has turned out to be a true monster. With 1.4m units ordered already, there is no sign of the product slowing down and it’s

Finishing Touch Flawless Brows

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looking likely to be a smash hit at Christmas. So, what happens next year? How can we possibly match these numbers in UK retail? Well, I’m delighted to reveal that the answer is here: Finishing Touch Flawless Brows.

The retail launch is imminent, and this is extremely exciting. In fact, I’ve decided to stick my neck out there and predict that Brows is going to be equally as big, if not bigger, than the original Flawless. Meanwhile, the search goes on for winning products not just for the UK but worldwide.

It feels like we’re edging closer and closer to finding the right formula for a global hit product. The latest 2-minute films shot by the Production team are some of the best we have ever seen at JML. Drain Jet and Mighty Bamboo Towels are slick, presenter-lead, demo-heavy films that really look and feel like some of the best spots coming out of the USA. Both products are getting very positive reactions from our

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International customers and we have high hopes that this translates into strong tests and sales. In terms of infomercials, in the first quarter we will launch Slender Soak Bath Salts – the ‘magic’ slimming bath salts.

This is our next big shot at a Global Blockbuster Infomercial and we have teamed up with a respected South American DRTV company to shoot what should be a fantastic film.

It feels like we’re edging closer and closer to finding the right formula for a global hit product.

With more investment in films and product development than ever before, we are in a really strong place at the moment. Kelvin’s promotion to Head of PD and his restructure of the department has helped ensure that the team are really focused on pushing through high quality, innovative products as quickly as possible. Everyone has been busy working on some very interesting new projects, with a new pet product, tie-ups with the best performing Buy It Now product inventors and a follow up to the hugely successful Chillmax Pillow all on the horizon. What a time to be alive!

Kelvin Lee Head of Product Development

H

AVING TAKEN ON the Head of PD role recently, I have proposed some changes to the team and it has taken slightly longer than hoped to communicate this to the wider business as there were some final details which needed to be finalised. But I’m now happy with things and looking forward to a great period ahead.

There will be a new Technical Team, formed and led by a new starter who joined us on 8th October. His name is Mark Penwell and he has decades of work experience with Argos in their Technical department and he will report in to me, then Ben Mendez will report into Mark as part of the team. The team will primarily

Autumn 2018

look to help reduce the amount of returns, and react and investigate when problems do arise. The team will also fully take on IM generating and will be working closely with product developers and the Design team.

Kirsten Jacobs has sadly moved on for pastures new as she didn’t manage to settle in London as well as she had hoped, having moved over from South Africa not long before she joined JML almost a year ago. Amrita Kumar joined a few weeks ago now as Product Development Manager focussing on Retail products and is settling in well. There have also been some promotions within the team. Harpal has been promoted to Product Development Manager and will look to take on Direct 3rd party products as well as Retail 3rd party. Rochelle has been promoted to Senior Product Development Manager and will take on the team lead role in the Retail PD team.

I am extremely excited with the new team and look forward to sourcing and launching some truly winning products in the road ahead. Watch this space!

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Lights, Camera,

ACTION! It’s Bank Holiday Monday. The sun is shining, all of London is out in the parks enjoying the last of the summer heat.

N

OT THE PRODUCTION TEAM. We’re crowded into the upstairs of Power Road, our demo studio, huddled around a blocked toilet discussing the best way to reduce splash back.

Who said working in television was glamourous?

We’re preparing to shoot Drain Jet. The powerful drain un-blocker that proved to be so forceful it literally split one of our props in half on set.

But today is practice day and we’re rehearsing the script, figuring out the best angle, number of pumps, and exact positioning to best show off the product.

We’re working with shopping telly legend Marc Gill who has flown over from the US and is amazed to discover for once London is actually sunnier than Florida. He’s so in demand that working over the Bank Holiday was the only time we could get him. But everyone’s so excited about this project, without even asking, the on-location production team has volunteered to give up their holiday. The morning is spent on Drain Jet and in the afternoon, we turn our attention to the Mighty Bamboo Towel, the super-absorbent reusable kitchen towel. We’ve spent weeks trialling different messes and spills and today we’re refining the exact measurements, the best way to pour each liquid and showing Marc how he needs to fold and wipe for maximum effect. We finish up

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rehearsals and while Marc heads off to explore London, we load up the van and go over the shot list for the next day.

We’re working with shopping telly legend Marc Gill who has flown over from the US and is amazed to discover for once London is actually sunnier than Florida Call time is 6am on Tuesday. It takes two trips in two vans to get all our kit to the studios. We’ve literally got everything including the kitchen sink, and a bathroom sink as well.

Catherine Campbell - Head of Production

The empty brick-work building is soon transformed into a studio set and we start the day. Marc is a true professional and performs consistently bringing an exciting energy to the shoot. I wish I could say the same for the props. There’s a burst pipe, a leaky toilet, and a tennis ball launching system that refuses to launch. Luckily, we’ve planned for such contingencies and with an emergency repair kit and a bit of extra time, we manage to get everything we need.

By the time we finish and pack up it’s 8pm. Back to Power Road and we’re re-loading for the next day.

Mighty Bamboo Towel is shot on location in some lucky person’s actual oversized kitchen. The props are more predictable, but there’s a lot of demos to get through. Marc’s energised, the product performs

American infomercial legened Marc Gill Autumn 2018

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By the end of the 30 minute build, he’s sweating and we’re all tense from watching him. But we’ve got the shot and I already know it’s going to look fantastic.

fantastically, and the team remain focused despite the gruelling few days they’ve had.

Marc’s energised, the product performs fantastically, and the team remain focused despite the gruelling few days they’ve had.

We wrap at 6pm to a lot of high fives and hugs all round. It’s been an exhausting few days but everyone’s buzzing.

Now the hard work in edit begins.

We never did figure out how to eradicate the splash back from the sawn-in-half toilet prop. So, we call on Alistair Rankine to help. Using the magic of post and hours of painstaking work, he removes every drop of water and magically dries Marc’s shirt. The result is a one-shot finale that’s a powerful end to the film.

The last shot of the day is a locked off shot building a paper towel tower of 68 kitchen roles. A locked off shot means the camera stays rolling and everything around it remains in the exact same position, except for the kitchen rolls being stacked. Nothing on set can move, no lighting changes, no stray shadows or movements, and once placed in shot, no paper towel can change position. James Specker is tasked with the delicate job of stacking the kitchen rolls one at a time without moving a thing. It’s like a giant game of intense Jenga.

Alongside the cutaway shots, Marc’s studio sections make these some of the strongest instore films we’ve produced. We were able to give them to the team to take to Vegas for the PDMI where I’m sure they’ll make a powerful impression. Check out the JML Hub to watch those videos.

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A Day in the life of

Chris Scally

A

LITTLE OVERVIEW of my role as Head of broadcast.

I manage the technical aspects of our Sky channel on 661 and Freesat channel on 806.

My Mondays usually begin with getting into Chiswick for around 7am where I enjoy a bowl of oats with maple syrup and water. As I wade through the sweet gruel that is my breakfast I check the previous day’s ‘AS RUN Logs’ sent to us from Arqiva.

AS RUN logs are a recording of the previous 24 hours airings as a ‘.txt file’. This would show any outages or on-air issues (should there be any).

I am also our out-of-hours contact for connectivity for both channels, which means should there be any issues, with power outages, weather problems, unplanned maintenance (or overnight works gone haywire) I receive a call in the wee hours to inform me of such, and let me know what actions are needed, if any.

Another aspect of my role is dealing with the long form 3rd party material we air on a variety of channels,

selected by Alistair Crowe for most impact and generate the highest GPAM (Gross Profit After Margin) over media cost. We recently partnered with a new delivery company called Honeycomb TV which allows the editors to run off a series of ‘clocks’ (clocks are the name

[...] our current system is in place and working a charm and we hope to drive some big revenue this Christmas and beyond into 2019! given to each infomercial relating to each channel, so each channel and infomercial has its own unique clock). We also use their online advert creating system to deliver our chosen infomercials to anywhere in the world. Their system uses a very ingenious form of AI which checks all

Arqiva in Chalfont 10

by Chris Scally - Head of Broadcast

files for errors technical, audio and even visual. Since leaving KTS in 2016 our playout has moved to Arqiva which is hosted in their rack space in Chalfont (a former military base).

From there, they have dedicated scheduling ingest, video ingest and playout teams working on our on-shift patterns 24/7, for the most part. At the Chalfont site, this is also where our little signal leaves the ground and ‘Matrix’ (MUX for short) before being beamed to the satelite.

Without boring anyone I will briefly explain what this means. Our signal or ‘channel’ sits on a preset transponder. If you imagine a transponder on a satellite as a large motorway going in one direction… stay with me… for example, there are 5 lanes of traffic representing 5 channels on a transponder. If your channel/lane is on a CBR (Constant Bit Rate) then you can go as fast as you like in your lane and NO ONE can come into your lane.

However, if your channel/lane is a VBR (Variable Bit Rate) then if

Coverage of the Astra 28.2 E satellite Autumn 2018

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another channel in another lane wants to go faster than you, you have to nudge over slightly and share some of your lane with them, so they can get to their destination faster. A faster moving car sharing a lane with other cars in this analogy is basically the more movement, colour /activity in a moving picture the more ‘bandwidth’ it requires.

So only really has a visible impact on channels that share a Mux (and transponder) with sports channels and sometimes news channels, so this doesn’t affect us… so, as I have rambled on about it, it now does seem rather a moot point.

Below is the coverage of the satellite JML’s channel (and other Sky cannels) is broadcasted via, Astra 28.2 E satellite.

A recent project I attempted was the Matrix-esque takeover of Brian’s office for several weeks while I tried to re-habilitate and re-instate the old playout servers salvaged from Kentish Town Studios.

Without boring you with overly in-depth details of SQL servers, time code triggering, point-to-point connectivity using fibre Arq-net, N+1 redundancy I shall explain briefly the project.

I’m sure the whirring and buzzing could be heard from around the

office as the servers sounded like they were about to take off.

The reason I started this task was because if I had been successful, it would have allowed dynamic response playout. This basically means that we would have been able to manipulate the on-air programming, pricing, graphics, ticker, BUGS (DOGS - Digital On-screen Graphics) from here in JML Chiswick. Currently, some of these aspects require days/weeks of planning and even then need to be delivered to Arqiva, Sky and Freesat for them to also action.

The back bone of this endeavour (apart from the playout servers themselves) are two pieces of software developed by the very talented Mr. Shabih Rizvi, named DATS and KATS. I won’t bore you (as I may have explained or trying to explain how satellite signals work) but I shall simply say that these lovely bespoke pieces of software were developed and created by Shabih some years ago while he was in the broadcasting department.

They allow us to manage all playout aspects, pricing, timings and reportings for all channels.

switched off for the last time, they were 11/12 years old (if not older) and the RAID array which made the whole thing work could not be fixed even after sending it to a specialised third party for repair.

BUT! Nevertheless, our current system is in place and working a charm and we hope to drive some big revenue this Christmas and beyond into 2019!

When not managing the day-today aspects of JML’s broadcasting I sometimes get the lucky chance to flex my previous skills as an audio engineer to record/edit and mix for JML using our neighbours, Encompass, lovely state of the art recording studios, which is always fun!

Thank you for taking time to read over my explanation of my role.

Please if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask!

most of the time with our playout servers and graphics software allowing automated dynamic playout.

Alas, the playout servers had to be

Brian's Office

Pro Tools Audio Suite Autumn 2018

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Giles McHenry National Account Manager

Who is Giles McHenry?

Well I'm a father of two amazing boys, Harry, 4 and Freddie, 2. My passion is cars and rugby. My 6 year old Cockerpoo Doris keeps me fit along with a daily trip to the gym.

I am motivated by success and friendships.

What excited you about coming to join JML?

If I were Prime Minister for a week, what would I change?

Q&A after a few beers, he'd agree to create one based on me!!

With the world watching, now is the time to send a clear signal that the UK is open for business, so I'd try and increase manufacturing in the UK, invest in the production of affordable but powerful zero-emission cars and also look at building loads of houses on government-owned property.

Every household knows the name and brand, every household needs a JML product and it excited me to be able to help get a JML product into as many holds as possible.

Freddie

Any particular highlights in the last 6 months?

What do you think about when you're alone in the car?

Getting FTF listed in Argos and Sainsbury's has been the most exciting part so far. Sales have been amazing with over £300k Inv value into Argos so far since listing and over £130k into Sainsbury's.

Often, how I'm going to fit 28 hours into 24, but mostly about how early I have to get up to go to the gym!

My favourite holiday location and why?

This is an easy one…. Noosa Beach on Australia's East coast, I spent a week there during my honeymoon trip to Oz and fell in love with the laid-back vibe of the old-style surfer's town.

Favourite meal?

Something Thai…having been to Thailand a few times, I love eating and cooking their dishes.

Anyone living or dead that I would really like to have a pint with?

Harry 12

Stan Lee - he has created some of the most amazing Marvel charac ters and I'd just love to find out what on earth goes on in his head…maybe

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What would I find in your fridge right now?

Lots of chicken, ham, cheese, Paw Patrol Yogs, loads of fruit and about 30 cans of Coke Zero.

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Muddy or not here we come!

by Vanessa Gordino Senior Packaging Designer

Monica anessa V

Stacey

Sonia

Sarah

Emma

Kerry

We did it! 5k running, jumping, commando trailing, sliding and more... IN THE MUD! The GO FASTER Team had a lot of fun and we are planning to do another challenge again.

A massive THANK YOU to all our sponsors we raised ÂŁ1,415 for cancer research.

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’ 6 8 f o s s a l C

Stacey Kawooya - International Sales Assistant

W

E HAD OUR CAFÉ TAKEOVER right at the end of the month.

Summer was coming to a close and we needed to lift spirits up as we went back to cold dark days we call Winter. What better way to do it than to have a throwback… all the way to the 80's. Even better it was a prom, and it sure felt like it. There were bright colours everywhere, punch and jello shots to keep the people energised and we even had Ashish on the decks bringing back some classic 80's music.

In terms of food, well those waffles flew by really quickly, but most of all was the chocolate fountain. You could stick fruits, marshmallows, pancakes, waffles, basically anything you wanna eat you added some chocolate onto it. I don’t even like banana and I was there eating away.

DJ Ashish Enjoying drinks

We also can’t forget about that classic karaoke moment with Mel owning the mic, and beer pong with Ken. Even other companies in the building were joining in.

Overall, I would say it was a pretty good takeover. There were lots of laughs and dancing and singing… especially singing.

K araoke team 14

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untai o f e t a l Choco

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Jack's Wedding

by Jack Morgan - Product Development Manager

O

N THE 18TH OF AUGUST 2018, Elizabeth Claire Ju Xiang Venning made an honest man of the Product Development teams Jack Oliver Morgan. The day began with a church ceremony at St Mary Magdalene’s Church, Wookey Hole, where 160 guests packed into a 120 capacity church to witness Lizzie and Jack getting hitched.

The bride and groom were then transported to the reception by Shire horse and carriage to the Wookey

Hole Cricket Pitch for a traditional Ploughman’s lunch, a best man speech at the expense of Jack, and an enormous amount of champagne, beer and Somerset cider. The theme of the day was colourful country, with a bit of Asian thrown in as Lizzie is part Chinese and grew up in Singapore.

The evening ‘hoedown’ took place in Wookey Hole working men’s club, where our friends Lost Revellers played their unique fusion of swinging Gypsy jazz, fiery tangos,

wild dance beats and stomping folk music. Lizzie and Jack’s first dance was ‘Strip the Willow’, a traditional country dance where everyone forms two rows down the room, men on the right, women on the left. The couple swing each other, and then proceed to ‘strip’ down the room alternating from partner to the next in line, the bride ‘stripping’ the men and the groom ‘stripping’ the ladies.

The evening quickly descended into a complete chaos, with stamping feet, swinging partners and throwing drinks. A good time had by all!

T he happy couple were transported by carriage

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T he life of the

Elaine Francis

Senior Customer Service Advisor

Senior Customer Service Advisor

People often think that a typical day in the life of a Senior Customer Service Advisor involves dealing exclusively with grumpy people over the phone and drinking cups of tea. It’s not all about that. Sometimes we have biscuits too!

I

’VE BEEN WITH JML for just over 9 years. I worked in the sales team for around 5 years then made the move over to Customer Services as an advisor. In 2016, I became a senior advisor which is certainly challenging and hard work but lots of fun too! I work alongside one other senior advisor, Lynsey, and a team of seven CS advisors. Our manager Jane has her work cut out for her with us lot!

A TYPICAL DAY Whether it’s processing returns, troubleshooting, organising and managing the team work load, processing sample orders from head office, dealing with post, coaching or team building – no two days are the same here.

Throughout the day, I’m answering calls. They may be from stores or other businesses, Retail and Direct JML customers and occasionally not our customers at all! Some people insist that they’ve bought something from us that we’ve never sold or sometimes they call us to complain that their bins haven’t been emptied - our local

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EARLY MORNING WORKOUT When I’m on early shift, I pop the kettle on and hit the ground running.

As soon as I come in, I’m responsible for making sure we record all the work done the day before, check for voicemails and allocate any customer emails we’ve received to the advisors.

I’m also responsible for updating our call data spreadsheet, inputting details of the returns we processed the day before and sending out

Experience Survey emails to retail customers who have agreed to take part.

number is only one digit different to the number for South Tyneside Council!

or solution offered by our advisors and wish to take things further.

These are pretty few and far between because we have such a wonderful team of extremely knowledgeable advisors who handle complaints really professionally. The whole team are experts on the vast number of JML products and how they work, they know about current consumer law and they know how to turn a customer’s frown upside down!

We once had a call from a lady who was extremely upset - she was cleaning the outside of her caravan with the Hurricane Spin Scrubber and the brush flew off and landed in the next field. Unfortunately, it happened to be a field where the local bull lived so she couldn’t retrieve her Hurricane brush and was hoping we’d send her a new one!

I also handle escalations – these are usually customers passed to me who aren’t willing to accept the advice

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I also check to see if there are any web orders stuck in the system due to processing errors and I check ‘Sprout’ for new messages. Sprout is the dashboard we use to respond to customer queries from Facebook and Twitter. I have no idea why it’s called Sprout – it might be to do with the amount of hot air floating around on there!

The Customer Service team are at the heart of JML and often the first point of contact our customers have. I’m proud to be part of the team.

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From Number Crunching to

…Camera, Lights, and Design!

by Hanh Ly - Creative Artworker

It’s hard to believe that it has already been six months since I moved from Finance to the Design Team. I come from an accounting background, graduated with a Masters in Financial Management, and I have always worked in the financial field, well...until now.

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IX MONTHS AGO, I was lucky to be given the great opportunity to join the Design Team. So, after 14 years of number crunching, mountains of spreadsheets, and a battered calculator, I decided to trade these in for something more creative.

It was a huge step, but I was ready to face a new challenge. I was nervous but very excited at the same time.

The first few weeks were tough. But things got easier as the weeks went by. I am very lucky to work with a team of great talent. I have learned so much from Genaro and Vanessa over the last few months. I’ve even learned how to use a professional camera, which I never thought I would.

As an Artworker, my main jobs are creating barcode labels, rating labels and instruction manuals, as well as taking professional photos of new products which is a part of the job I really enjoy. Occasionally, I get involved in working with JML’s product packaging, this requires a bit more skill.

So, when Vanessa asked if I wanted to join her in a photoshoot of a new JML product, Woof Glider, a toy for dogs, I didn’t need any persuasion.

On the day, I was the first to arrive at the property where the photoshoot was taking place, 45 minutes to be precise. It wasn’t long when Rupert and his assistant, Claudia arrived. We came in and introduced ourselves to the owner of the house. The interior of the house was beautiful, spacious, bright, and airy (compared to my tiny flat), the perfect place for a photoshoot.

I helped Rupert and Claudia to bring in the equipment. Once the camera and all the lights were set up, it was as if we were in a mini Hollywood, shooting an action movie. It was very exciting.

Star of the shoot

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We hired 2 dogs for our shoot, Indy and Rebel. The idea was to get the dogs to do their tricks, by playing with the Woof Glider, and picking it up with their mouths, while Rupert took pictures of them in action. Throughout the day, it was visible that the dogs were tired from performing the same pose so many times. But don’t worry, they had regular breaks and plenty of treats.

It was a fruitful day, turned out to be better than I expected. Both dogs were amazing and so well trained.

They performed all the tricks their owners asked them to. It was a great experience and I can’t wait to manage a little project of my own in the future.

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The glamorous life of a

Production Assistant

by Louise Giddings - Production Assistant

When starting at JML nine months ago, I really had no idea what to expect. Graduating from Bournemouth University last year with a degree in Scriptwriting for Film and TV, the role of Production Assistant was going to be my first professional job in the television industry, an industry I’ve always dreamed of being a part of! So even though I was over the moon when I received an email with a job offer, my excitement came hand in hand with a bundle of nerves. However, once I started, I was greeted so warmly by everyone here that my nerves soon disappeared!

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S EARLY AS MY FIRST WEEK, I realised that the role of Production Assistant is extremely varied.

One day I could be booking locations for an upcoming shoot, and the next I’m power walking into hairdressers asking for cut hair so I can make a realistic looking blocked drain. To help you get the full picture, I’ve compiled a list for all you lovely readers of some of my favourite moments of the job since joining, hope you enjoy reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed being a part of it!

REALISING HOW MUCH EFFORT GOES INTO MAKING SPILLS AND STAINS. The first ever shoot I did was for our X-Power Mop. Unpacking the van that morning, I saw a large tub (that I am now very familiar with) labelled ‘The Stain Box’. I was informed that this box was full of products that are used purely to make spills and stains. It was full of things like blackcurrant squash, marmite, and my new arch nemesis, gravy browning. Looking at all the different products that went into it, in my mind, I thought to myself ‘surely it can’t be that difficult to just create stains?’

But I was wrong. Making realistic stains

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and spills is literally a skill in itself.

First off, when you’re purposely trying to create a spill or stain it never seems to come out looking like a real spill or stain. I’ve made a million stains and spills at home, so it shouldn’t be that hard. But after wiping a puddle of squash for the tenth time because every spill I made looked like it’d been carefully tipped onto the kitchen floor, with my hands covered in gravy browning and other suspect stain making products, I realised it wasn’t as easy as I’d thought.

Secondly, the stains on shoot aren’t actually what you think they are. For instance, mud or dirt on the floor, isn’t actually mud, it’s a handful of ground pepper mixed in with water, dust on the floor around sofas and tables is actually ground walnut powder, AND rust on hobs and pans is a blend of dry shampoo and gravy browning. I soon discovered the amount of time and effort that goes on behind the scenes when making spills and stains (and cleaning them up). The magic world of television.

WATCHING BUDDING ACTORS AND ACTRESSES YELL AT AN IRON DURING CASTINGS. This could potentially be one of my favourite experiences so far.

During April myself, James and David

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my producers and Jack our other production assistant, held castings for an upcoming advert. In the script, a man and woman had to groan and yell angrily at their useless household products, i.e. a leaky iron or a painful waxing strip, only to be replaced by the amazing JML products. To make sure that the actors were comfortable yelling and shouting in front of camera, we asked them to envision themselves

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in stressful scenarios during the auditions, such as rushing to work and the iron burning their only top, and then yelling in despair for as long and as loud as they can.

It. Was. Brilliant. I never realised how loud people could shout until those auditions. Some people fell to their knees cradling the iron, other people screamed for so long they actually went red in the face, and others just seemed to have a natural talent for acting genuinely distraught. The yelling was so loud at one point we had both neighbours knocking on the door asking if everything was alright. I actually admire the actors and actresses that came in for the audition and just fully let rip in front of four strangers while keeping a straight face, because I definitely couldn’t have done it.

I expect to be seeing them at the BAFTA’s yelling at an iron very soon.

ASKING HAIRDRESSERS FOR CUT WOMAN’S HAIR AND SOUNDING SLIGHTLY UNHINGED. So, as I mentioned previously, for an upcoming shoot I needed to create a realistic-looking blocked drain with hair, and what better place to find hair than a hairdressers?

In my mind, I thought the best way to approach this was to ring up some local hairdressers and simply ask them if they have any spare hair. So, I got on the phone and called up the first hairdresser and it wasn’t long until they answered.

“Hello, Chiswick hairdressers.” But, for some reason, the moment they answered the phone, my mind went

ses res ngs sti

dd ing actors and u b g tchin t an iron during act a ca W ell a y

completely blank and the only thing that I could seem to muster up was “Hello I need cut hair.”

With no explanation of who I was or why I wanted the hair, it either sounded like I had some strange hair fetish or was just really desperate for a haircut. Unsurprisingly, the hairdressers explained they had no hair and swiftly hung up. After that slightly traumatising experience, I decided the best way forward was to actually go into hairdressers and ask in person. It still sounded strange, but at least this way they could see my JML lanyard and understand I wasn’t some crazed hair maniac. And in the end, we made some cracking blocked drains.

MY NAN ASKING WHEN SHE’S GOING TO SEE ME ON TV AFTER EVERY SHOOT. This one is pretty self-explanatory. I regularly have to remind my Nan that no, unfortunately, I am not the face of JML. HAVING THE OPPORTUNITY TO CREATE MY OWN SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERT. So, myself and fellow Production Assistant Jack have been given the amazing opportunity to write, produce and direct our very own social media advert for some of JML’s upcoming products.

Personally, outside of University this is one of the first projects I’ve created and overseen from beginning to end, it’s such a brilliant opportunity and one I’m really excited about! Plus, spending half my life on social media scrolling through Facebook, I thought this was right up my street. Filming is taking place in the next couple of weeks and I’m just pulling together the final pieces to my piece and can’t wait to see the finished product.

Sadly, 11th October was my last day with JML as I left for new pastures, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Production and hope to take these great experiences with me throughout my new career.

Thank you all at JML.

Autumn 2018

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BABY BOOM

IN CUSTOMER SERVICES

by David Chrisp Service Support Team Leader

2018 has certainly been a productive year for our lovely Customer Service team at Tyne Dock‌in more ways than one!

Emily Hardie - Customer Service Advisor welcomed Arthur into the world on February 11th

Laura Hyde - Customer Service Advisor welcomed Mollie into the world on June 27th 20

Hayley Grieves - Customer Service Advisor is expecting a baby girl on November 15th this year!

Autumn 2018

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Golf Day for Enrych Oxfordshire

by Janie Peace - Director of International Sales

The International Team was pleased to organise some support for the Oxfordshire branch of a charity dedicated to helping enrich the lives of physically disabled people.

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HE AIM OF ENRYCH is to help people with a disability enjoy a leisure, cultural, sport or learning activity by pairing them with a volunteer who shares similar interests. ENRYCH also provides social activities such as pub lunches and quiz nights for the disabled and their volunteer partners.

We donated a selection of JML products for the charity’s annual

Charity Golf Day on 4th September which is well supported mostly by local businesses. Some of the products were used for prizes for the Golf Competition, and others became part of a Charity Auction. Chelsea Football Club Foundation donated an official 2018/19 football signed by the members of the first team. The latter was arguably a more exciting gift than a JML Halowave Oven, but the organizers were most grateful to us anyway!

ENRYCH managed to raise over ÂŁ11,000 on the day, which is very commendable and will go a long way to enrich the lives of disabled people in Oxfordshire.

Stewart, Jane Graves From left to right: Jan who helped on the day). and Lyn Homer (Lad ies

ancial Mike Swann of Swann Fin sponsor and Consultanc y, lad ies Cup n a prize.

Mavis Pountney who wo

From left to ri ght: Martin Ans on Director an sponsor from W d main hitley Stim pson Chartered Accou C atherine Rohll ntants, C ommercial D irector and mai of Norbar Torque n sp onsor Tools Lt d., E la ine Gilb ert, Volu Trustee & Fund nteer raiser of Enryc h Oxfordshire, David W hiting and last ly Director & Hea d of Dispute Re solution at Spratt End ic ott Solicitors.

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Poem

By Philippa James -

Area Sales Manager

go, with the poem below! a it e giv ill w I ut B ! in pla ex W hat do we do? It’s hard to the road, where I drive an hour down ay, I

me tod me to load A pat on the back for be tricky at a lorry is waiting for Y! YA , ally fin Our day-to-day job can d, un aro s to go to Tyne turned thi and very little The pallets here are phone my ar he times, so much to do d an car ck.

I jump in my the computer Dock, all full of old sto time. 6am calls, and notice 30 emails have d goodbye, an g ve rin wa d an ost ry alm es are I fill the lor hour an lf ha is turns on, the WTD sal p sto xt ne st fly. pinged.My with coffee in times getting on, I mu er done. I jump in my car l have to catch up lat wil I phone, they will ay, aw my on w ds no roa store, 80 emails is on, io rad the t, hand, how long to the ou is sun t home. today. The d. I make have to wait until I ge rite song. ou fav please don’t be jamme my y pla ase , ple way, to answer please several stops along the . lay t to de a phone call, so as no y slow, too My drive home was ver see my rep, to is me for p sto xt road I arrived The ne raring to go, many tractors on the in stores ies nit rtu po I arrive at store feeling op the ss clock, I had discu home and checked the vers on the road. to a coffee and b gra to having battled the dri e tim It’s t.

Now slot. are me not missed the Buy It see this man, I where we t ou rk wo 2 hours that took to d an at, ch a brew, I wonder have a ming hand.

I go inside and make er the sales ov is ng hope he offers a welco eti me e Th do. It's 7pm now are at. what Ken’s going to and what’s in day to be ve siti po We talk about sales, a g, ba the day in the life of a are in time to switch off, a e to walk the off again I’m er ov t store and then decid no is y da had. My field sales job. lk on by his side, a friend. floor. I confidently wa e to meet a lorry and tim s thi romise. hoping he will comp

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Autumn 2018

Calendar October

November MOVEMBER

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November

12

ENGAGE CLOCK SPORTS

STRESS MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP

CHISWICK CAFÉ

The clocks go back 1 hour TAKEOVER at 2am on the last Sunday in October.

16:30am - 18:30pm

12:30pm • Chiswick Park

November December

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VIASAT’S

CHISWICK CAFÉ TAKEOVER 16:30am - 18:30pm

1

FIREWORKS EXTRAVAGANZA 6pm Chiswisk Business Park

December

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December

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CHRISTMAS JUMPER DAY 12:30pm

CHILDREN IN NEED

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D R O W SS

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O R C

AL I C E P S N O I T C U D PRO

WRIT Y P O C , ATSON W N A I by

1 2 3

6

5

ER

4 6

6

5

5 8 7

9

11 10 12

13

14

15

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ACROSS 3. Sounds like another name for boxing 5. No more words 6. Good in Manchester 7. These guys never walk to work 10. Holds up these objects 11. Found between the lights and the action 13. 'The opposite of low', according to the dictionary 14. Is it a tiny mobile?

15. The last five sevenths of a farm vehicle 16. Putting words in people's mouths

1. Location • 2. Demonstations • 3. Editing • 4. Infomercial • 5. Voiceover • 6. Sound • 7. Runners • 8. Gatenby 9. Marc Gill • 10. Props • 11. Camera • 12. Director • 13. High Definition• 14. Microphone • 15. Actor • 16. Script

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DOWN 1. Rubbing oil surrounds California 2. We don't use marching and placards for ours 4. Like an advert but way longer 8. It's not his Kristian name 9. Score the fishy parts of this presenter 12. Vicar to the Princess of Wales

Autumn 2018