Newsletter 22

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Exe Box Bulletin Welcome to the Exe Box Bulletin issue number twenty two Welcome to the latest edition of the Exe Box Bulletin, resurrected after a gap! My thanks to Steve Plackett who volunteered to pull this edition together. It is that time of the year when we are poised, waiting for the season and to see how our various companies perform. Carousel has secured all of the key customers that it works with and is looking forward to another year of excellent service from Kate and Gee and their teams getting the calendars out to the supermarkets and other customers. The quality of the product range and the strong sales capability of Carousel, combined with the strength of the logistics capability within the Group put Carousel in the best possible position for the coming season. Otter House is also in good shape for the coming season; the three factors that drive Otter House’s performance remains calendars (with an increase in calendar customers this year), Christmas product (again up reasonably healthily) and Charities also looking stronger this year. Again the three factors that underpin performance are all in place: attractive product, good sales capability and strong logistics. As you will see in the Calendar Club section we now have three different retail concepts within Calendar Club. Our calendar stores remain the key to overall performance, but the Halloween stores continue to grow strongly and we are embarking on a new venture this autumn with the Magic Candy Factory. It is an exciting time for Calendar Club. The preparation for this season has been very good for the calendar stores and our store acquisition is on track. We currently have close to 230 stores out of the 280 that we are aiming for this year. Halloween preparation has been a little more frantic, following delays earlier in the year caused by the merger of CC’s Halloween operation with that of Creative Retail Solutions in Dublin (see the Calendar Club section). We are now looking forward to opening around 50 stores this year. We are also working hard to get the first Magic Candy Factory mall units open in mid-October. Good luck everyone for the next few months – it will no doubt be hard work, but we can be proud of the fact that we have all done all we can to have a good year.

David Pike

The magic of Magic Candy Factory

Exe Box Facilities Sprinkler tanks In April this year, the two sprinkler tanks in the main yard underwent a ‘once-in-15-years’ drain down and inspection, which identified modest remedial works. However, in July the liner for Tank 1 (the one behind the smoking shelter) split, resulting in a major leak, and the tank emptied itself over a 24 hour period (you may have seen a lot of water gushing out the back of it). A new tank liner has now been installed, the remedial works have been completed, and the sprinkler system is fully operational again. Audi cars In February the Exeter Audi garage suddenly needed more space to store cars, and we managed to give them space to store up to 70 cars (in the main yard, between the sprinkler tanks and in the staff car park). We have now taken back the spaces in the staff car park, as we need them for staff at this time of year. Main yard Last year there was a major clearing and sort out of the main yard. I would like to congratulate everyone for continuing to keep the yard generally clear and tidy. Water Lane In April 2016 we rented Unit 9 Water Lane for one year, as a temporary location for storing and fulfilling Halloween stock. We are also in the process of temporarily taking Unit 5.

Fire Drill Following the recent Fire Drill that was held at Exe Box, some updates and changes will be made to procedures. These will be communicated to all staff, and further practices will be held in due course. Extra warehouse space at Exe Box Consideration is being given to building more warehouse space at the far (West) end of Exe Box, in order to accommodate the growth of Halloween. As a first step the undergrowth in this area is to be cleared, and you may see surveyors measuring up and assessing the ground. Busy season Now that we are into our ‘busy season’, we have a large number of movements of people, goods, and vehicles around the warehouse and the yard every day. Can everyone please be particularly careful in respect of these movements at this time of year, and fully follow the procedures that we have in place to try to minimise risks. If anyone becomes aware of any problems or issues, please bring them to the attention of Mike Knight, our Facilities and Health & Safety Manger, or myself. This can be done either directly, or by an email to facilities@ calendarclub.co.uk or by logging on to http:// faclities/portal.

Anthony Jervoise

EXEBOX 1


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Newsletter 22 by Kerri Cuthbert - Issuu