A Happy New Year to Everyone!
A new year has begun. What will it bring. More pressures to control prices and costs. Certainly more inflation as well. The pound has lost value against the euro over the past few years and seeing as a good deal of label stock and machinery comes from eurozone countries so increased prices are inevitably beginning to work their way through. We shall to what we can to keep our prices down; finding ways to cut costs while maintaining service standards.
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The Christmas just passed was a busy one. In fact Christmas is always a busy time here. Or rather, just before Christmas. There’s a perception that the Christmas holiday lasts for couple a weeks with no possibilities of supply during that period. That causes everyone to stock up madly, ordering things before the festive season begins. Because everyone is ordering at the same time there is a terrible problem with bunching. We do our best to rush to get orders out, despatched and delivered before the cut-off date.
And yet I wonder how much of this is strictly necessary. The bunching of orders creates problems for everyone. Many firms - ourselves included - are open for business between Christmas and the New Year. In any case those two festivals are only a week apart, not a fortnight as sometimes perceived. Life does go on in early January.
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Sometimes we are expected to be mind readers. When making an enquiry it is surprising how difficult some customers find it sometimes to give answers to straightforward questions about the size of a label or the quantities that are needed. It is true we can make recommendations based on our experience but we need some idea of what is in the customer’s mind around which we can work. It is hard to make bricks without straw. We can always recommend alternative solutions and give quotes for multiple sizes and quantities. As always the bulk of the cost with a label is usually in the setting up rather than in the running of the label. This is especially true for the more complex labels.
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