Store & Secure: Online retailers – here’s why self-storage is ideal for you

[Online PR for Store & Secure self-storage]

For the ever-growing number of budding online entrepreneurs, self-storage solutions are becoming a necessity to help cater for consumers’ insatiable desire to shop online. Whether you’re an online trader, an eBay seller or run an Amazon store, the flexibility of having a dedicated off-site storage space cannot be underestimated.

If you’re currently carrying stock, let’s face it, there’s only so much you can physically store in the garage or the box room. Space is not the only issue – you’re not giving your storage the protection it deserves in your home. In the event of flooding, fire or any other form of natural disaster, your stock could face possible ruin. Worse still, you’ll struggle to find a household insurance policy that’ll insure your stock.

However, for many online start-ups, renting commercial property is simply too much of a risk in terms of the overall cost. The last thing you want is to be tied into a long-term tenancy agreement if you’re still just dipping your toes into the water of e-commerce.

That’s where flexible and secure self storage comes in. Read more...
storeandsecure.co.uk/self-storage-news/online-retailers-heres-self-storage-ideal/

Groveley: All-round travel benefits

[Photography and online PR for Groveley Precision Engineering]

We are encouraging staff to bike to work – by improving facilities at work with a new changing room and shower room.

This forms part of our travel policy and as members of Dorset’s Business Travel Network, they provided us with expertise and guidance in developing a travel action plan.

The network’s aims are to help reduce traffic pollution and congestion – and there are also staff benefits in increased health/wellbeing, reduced sickness, reduced travel costs and improved morale. At the same time, Groveley reduces its carbon footprint, manages parking demand and increases productivity.

The new facilities were part funded by a grant from Dorset County Council under its workplace travel grants scheme.

Child of Hope: Mary's new home

[Online PR for slum charity Child of Hope]

Single mum Mary Nakiru has had some big ups and downs in her life but we’ve been there to support her more than once… and now her small business is doing well, she is building a new home!

See: http://www.childofhopeuganda.org/latest-news/marys-new-home/

Store & Secure: latest eNewsletter

[Photography and eNewsletter for Store & Secure self-storage]

Your favourite self-storage centre here with our latest news... big expansion at our Bournemouth facility... your invitation to a cybercrime breakfast (ooh, what's that?)... a band records its latest song at our Basingstoke facility... read on!

Groveley Precision Engineering: latest eNewsletter

[Photography and eNewsletter for Groveley Precision Engineering]

Latest eNewsletter – we've... had a glowing report from our latest external audit of our quality and environmental policy, systems and practice... entered the medical equipment market... added oil mist filtering... applauded the government's plans for vocational and technical training... read on!

Store & Secure expansion: phase 3

[Photography and online PR for Store & Secure self-storage]

It started this week… the fit-out of our last phase at Bournemouth – an extra 150 new rooms covering 7,000 sq ft!

We’ve been holding onto the large empty area on our top floor (pictured) and using it for occasional large-scale storage, but now the time is right to complete our premises with the new rooms - which range from 10 sq ft to 200 sq ft.

It’s all down to the high demand for those size rooms, which are the most popular for business archives, stockrooms, stationery rooms, back office – and of course students and home moves.

So now we’re covering every square inch of our three floors… good job we’ve got a lift!

Storage with Store & Secure is low-cost, has free parking with 24-your access and you can upscale or downscale quickly and easily. You can even take advantage of our forklifts, pallet trucks and trolleys at no extra cost! Not forgetting our friendly, uniformed staff to greet you and your visitors, plus free tea and coffee all round.

Not to mention, it’s very safe. With constant supervision, monitored CCTV cameras and alarm systems, our locked units are accessible to you and only you.

Family rescue

[Online PR for slum charity Child of Hope]

While doing their rounds in the Namatala slum, our family support team learned of a suffering pregnant woman and 2 year-old son who had been abandoned by a husband and were really struggling without much hope. So our social workers visited Annette (23) in her temporarily-rented home, and found the situation worse then they thought… Annette now also had a 3 day-old new baby girl, who was looking very weak and sick. So they decided to help.

Annette has been unable to pay rent for some time, and the landlord was allowing her to stay in the one room building until she recovered from the pregnancy. She would then, most likely, be evicted. Annette sat on her mat bed (which is the only belonging she has) carrying her newborn baby, while her young son sat nearby.

Apparently Annette had not eaten any food for two days apart from the cup of black tea a friendly neighbour had given her – and she gave most of that to her son. The baby was born weak and sick with malaria and had to be hospitalized for three days.

Annette had occasionally attended the same church as Moses and Bex, which donated some money and clothes, while Child of Hope donated 10 kilos of rice and 10 kilos of beans.

She is currently facing a difficult life of no income, food, home or material items. The report from the social workers suggests that Annette is in an emergency situation and if nothing is done soon, the situation and this young family’s suffering will only worsen. We normally only work with families that have a child at our school, but in this case we will continue to monitor and help her… and try to ensure she isn’t evicted.

She told the social workers that she was an orphan who was raised by different people in her village. From a young age, she had worked as a housekeeper and had often been abused and mistreated as a child. Her decision to try and find a husband was as a result of all the suffering she had gone through.

Groveley: BIT training project builds on Lean and continuous improvement

[Photography and online PR for Groveley Precision Engineering]

Groveley staff currently in Business Improvement Techniques (BIT) training are in the middle of a live project – to improve the breath and depth of information captured on machinery maintenance, performance and compliance with H&S requirements.

Trainer Steve Burrell of Pathway Enterprises said: “It’s a naturally occurring project that will bring real benefits to Groveley.

“They are developing systems to clarify the areas that need regular maintenance, identify the actions to take and improve the capture of long-term data for modern H&S records.”

Skills gained during this round of BIT training will enhance our team’s ability to monitor and make improvements to production and manufacturing processes, especially in the tools and techniques of lean manufacturing. 

That, of course, aligns well with our SC21 status and and helps develop lean skills across the wider workforce.

Store & Secure: Cybercrime awareness breakfast: Thurs May 20 at 8am

[Online PR for Store & Secure self-storage]

Cybercrime is a fast-growing area of crime. More and more criminals are exploiting the speed, convenience and anonymity of the internet to commit a diverse range of criminal activities that know no borders, either physical or virtual, cause serious harm and pose very real threats to victims worldwide.

We have invited Jake Moore, cybercrime prevention specialist at Dorset Police, to Store & Secure on Thursday, April 20 at 8:00am for an insightful and educational morning, talking through the hazards we may face and how to protect ourselves from them… and we would love you to join us.

If you can’t wait until April 20 (we know we can’t), you can read Jake’s most recent article – Hacking the Human – to get a taster of the morning’s topic: click here

Child of Hope: Rising from the ashes

[Online PR for slum charity Child of Hope]

Another of our pupils and her family suffered an arson attack in February, totally destroying their mud hut home and all their belongings.

Thankfully, Rebecca (14) and her six family members managed to escape unharmed and our welfare team responded quickly to relocate the family to a safer place. Child of Hope is assisting with the cost of their new rented home, at 20,000 Ugandan shillings (around £5) a month.

The picture shows Rebecca and her sister with Charles (one of our social workers) in the remains of their home.

For more information about the social impact of helping families like these, please click here.

Groveley: Yes! Vocational and technical training is what Britain needs.

[Photography and online PR for Groveley Precision Engineering]

Groveley welcomes the Government's announcement of a vocational training shake-up that could be the most ambitious since A-levels.

As reported by the BBC this week, vocational and technical education in England is to get an extra £500m a year in a bid to train more skilled workers and boost the economy. 

The plans, to be set out in the Budget, also include replacing 13,000 existing qualifications with 15 “routes" linked to the needs of employers.

We applaud this as an extremely positive move. Young people need a real view of engineering so they are more able to make balanced and realistic career choices. We’re proud of Groveley’s own highly-effective apprenticeship scheme, which we’ve been running for years.

Groveley: Stuart picks up the pace

[Photography and online PR for Groveley Precision Engineering]

Despite uttering the immortal words: “I’m never doing that again,” Groveley’s operations manager Stuart Leaper is again pounding the streets in preparation for the London Marathon in April.

He and his wife Nicky are running together to raise funds for Poole Hospital Charity.

Stuart is training hard, running every other day and gradually increasing his distance. He’s on a tough 16-week regime to get him up to speed.

They aim to raise in excess of £1,500 for for the hospital, where 16 years ago he had life-changing surgery for his hearing. Both his children were born there, too.

If you’d like to sponsor Stuart and Nicky, they have set up a JustGiving page… could you cheer him on by visiting the page and making a donation? Click here!

Store & Secure: Calling Basingstoke charities… want a hand?

[Photography and online PR for Store & Secure self-storage]

Our self-storage facility has been running in Basingstoke for around eight months and we’d love to get involved and help out a couple of local charities… no charge, of course!

We’re a family-run business and we highly value the effort put in by local charities and the amazing impact they can have… and we’d really like to help here in Basingstoke.

So, if you’re a Basingstoke charity and you’d like a hand, please email Kevin Chandler on kevin@storeandsecure.co.uk, explaining what you do and how you think we could support you. For example; fundraising, hosting events for you, providing extra space, or helping with volunteering and time.

We look forward to hearing from you!  

Child of Hope: Family support... the latest social impact

[Online PR for slum social impact charity Child of Hope]

Child of Hope continues to positively impact the lives of many of the Namatala slum community’s most desperate and impoverished families through the family support programme.

Check out our new social impact page showing specifics in disaster intervention, family assistance, advocacy, land disputes mediation and family conflict arbitration: click here…