Big space

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

Over the last couple of months, a large part of our top floor was hired by a garden furniture wholesaler, which needed a big indoor space to show its ranges of luxury furniture to retailers in the region, predominantly garden centres.

Now, our top floor is rather BIG… during our recent expansion we half-filled it with permanent self-storage rooms, but it still has 5,000 square feet that we keep for more unusual storage requirements, often short-term.

The great thing about our business storage facility is that you have full use of our forklift, pallet trucks, hand trucks and trolleys – and a large lift – so moving your items becomes a piece of cake. And you can relax in our reception with a complimentary cup of tea and coffee, available to all of our customers.

Security is our number one priority. We have done everything we can to ensure your things are in the safest of hands – our sites are staffed seven days a week in office hours. Digital CCTV covers all the main access points to the storage area, constantly monitored throughout the day then during the night by an external security company. And our premises are protected by an advanced alarm system, which means that should anything suspicious occur, we’ll know.

SC21 silver renewal... for third time

[Photography and online PR for Groveley Precision Engineering]

Groveley’s SC21 Silver accreditation has been renewed for the third time… in recognition of its internal process excellence, quality and on-time delivery to the aerospace and defence industries.

SC21 (National Action Plan for 21st Century Supply Chains) is a change programme which aims to accelerate the competitiveness of the UK's defence and aerospace industry by raising the quality performance of its supply chains. 

Groveley was first presented its SC21 Silver award at the Farnborough International Airshow in 2012. Ongoing accreditation includes independent ratification of internal process excellence, quality and on-time delivery by customers.

The award became harder to achieve this year – with the bar raised to enhance relationships between customer and supplier and to demonstrate the supplier’s long-term sustainable benefits to the customer.

Groveley has supplied precision-engineered components to the aerospace and defence markets for over 50 years and is committed to the implementation of best manufacturing practice.

A flexible approach to business – along with with a constant drive for innovation – allows us to work with customers in the most efficient manner.

How to help an orphan…

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

You could make Christmas really special for a poverty-struck orphan or two in Romania this year… and we can help you do it.

The Biggin Hill Romania Group distributes around 2,000 Christmas shoeboxes each year in and around the area of Comanesti – and has big plans to expand to even more children.

Groups of volunteers, including some from the local Poole team, will pay their own way to visit and distribute the Christmas shoeboxes in person and see the joy they give.

If you can help, you simply buy items to fill a shoebox (for either a boy or a girl), then deliver it to our self-storage facility* by October 18. S’easy!

If you can help, here are some instructions…

Please wrap the lid and base of the shoebox separately with Christmas wrapping paper, secure the lid with two elastic bands and then tape a label to the top of the shoebox, indicating the approximate age and sex the shoebox is intended for.

To help with the transportation costs, is there any chance you could tape a couple of £1 coins to the label on the outside of the box… this is optional. 

Thanks!

* Please deliver your shoebox(es) to us during these hours:

- Mon-Fri 8am-6pm

- Sat 9am- 4pm

- Sun & bank holidays 10am-2pm

Half-price storage to celebrate the Cherries’ big day!

[eMailer, news and social media for Store & Secure self-storage]

Serviced office available to rent

[Online PR for Store & Secure self-storage]

We will shortly have a 270 sq ft service office available in our business centre… interested?

Rent is low-cost and it includes energy, rates and CCTV security! Not to mention free parking (and lots of it) and 24/7 access. And there’s no long-term contract, so your business will get everything it needs for one price, in one place, without having to sign a long lease.

Another perk of our serviced offices is a dedicated reception area that can accept packages so you don’t have to worry about who signs for what! You can collect any visitors you may have from the reception area, with complimentary tea and coffee available. Plus we offer optional mailbox and storage rooms.

No, it’s not too good to be true… these are very real benefits from renting an office with us. If you’d like to visit and see the office, or just talk about options, please call Lucy or Sophie today on (01202) 520 220 or e-mail us.

Swim, Bournemouth!

[Online PR for Groveley Precision Engineering]

Groveley has provided shirts for Swim Bournemouth Swimming Club as it competes at the 2015 ASA National Summer Championships in Sheffield This week.

The national battle to become an ASA Champion will see athletes from across England compete in five age groups and in multi-classification para-swimming races. 

Swim Bournemouth – the largest swimming club in Dorset – will send teams for individual and relay races. We’ll be cheering them on!

Corporate opportunities: start-up businesses for slum mums in Uganda

[Online PR for Child of Hope]

Child of Hope sets up mums of children at its school with business training, advice and a start-up grant – as part of its holistic approach to help lift families out of terrible poverty in the Namatala slum, eastern Uganda.

You can get involved into this life-changing, high social impact work by donating business grants (just £25 each) or by funding a post for a worker in our Income Generating Activities (IGA) team.

You can do this easily online, or if you would prefer an ongoing CSR relationship with Child of Hope, please e-mail our UK director Phil Dowding or call him on (01202) 697201. 

We have other CSR opportunities… if you are interested, please visit our corporate get involved page.

Photography by Alexander Rhind

On your bike!

[Photography and online PR for Groveley Precision Engineering]

Groveley is offering its staff tax-free cycles on interest-free loans under the local green transport plan to encourage improved fitness and to reduce pollution and congestion.

The scheme enables us to offer our employees the use of a bike and biking accessories, to the value of £1,000, tax free, and spread the payments over 18 months. So far six staff members have registered their interest.

Employees can choose their bike from independent bike shops in the local area with an option to buy it for a nominal fee at the end of the lease period. Accessories and safety equipment can be included with the bike.

Groveley is already a Bronze level member of the conurbation’s Business Travel Network accreditation scheme, which provides independent verification of the success of your travel action plan.

Playing the game, their way

[Online PR for Store & Secure self-storage]

A big welcome to our new serviced-office client Ability Counts (part of the AFC Bournemouth Community Sports Trust charity) which now rents a 150 sq ft office in our business suite.

Ability Counts gives anyone aged five years to adult with any form of learning or physical disability the chance to play football!

It provides an environment best suited to their needs, to enable them to train and play football both local and regionally. This takes place through organised training sessions, friendlies and competitive tournaments! 

Head coach Katy Shephard said: “We focus on each players ability and not their disability, allowing them to play their game, their way!”

The club benefits the community by giving the players the confidence in themselves to be able to participate in sport just like any of their friends or peers, as well as helping them to develop their social skills. It also gives the children and young people with behavioural issues an environment where they can grow away from unsociable activities. It puts everyone onto a level playing field where only their ability counts and not their disability!

For more information, e-mail Katy Shephard at abilitycounts@afcb.co.uk

Patrick

[Online PR for slum charity Child of Hope]

We’re very proud of Patrick, who we think is a real success story. A boy with physical and learning difficulties, constantly dribbling at the mouth and nose running, unable even to hold a crayon, let alone colour a drawing for his sponsor. 

He was one of the first in the school, who would have been unlikely to survive because of his problems. Now, six years he is doing well at his lessons, wrote a very neat letter to his sponsor, and is 24th in his class - where before he was firmly at the bottom. 

Although he still has physical problems, Patrick is in full control of himself now. He is much-loved at the school and we are so happy to have helped him. Without Child of Hope school, he had no chance of getting any education and if he had somehow managed to survive, would probably have ended up living and begging on the streets.

Our ‘recruitment’ policy isn’t based on how bright the children are, but simply this… to take the poorest and most vulnerable children, as agreed between our welfare workers and local community leaders. The school may not end up with the highest education results, but young people like Patrick get a huge lift up in life… and we love that.

Photography by Alexander Rhind

Living above 20p a day

[Online PR for charity Child of Hope]

We thought you’d like to see products made by some of our slum pupils’ mums – now for sale online in the USA!

Partner organisation 1000 Shillings brings a team of people each year to Namatala for a couple of months in conjunction with our Income generating Activity (IGA) team. This June they welcomed their fourth class of women from among our parents, who manufacture various bags, scarves, accessories and items of jewellery.

Similar to our IGA team, their goal is to support ultra-poor women to build sustainable businesses and move beyond living on just 1,000 Ugandan Shillings (under 20p) per day… hence the name.

Click on the pictures to see more examples of products made by our mums.

Engineer of the future?

[Photography and online PR for Groveley Precision Engineering]

Meet Luke Weeks, aged 15 – our latest work experience person. We have the distinct impression that he will make a great engineer in the years to come, and we are glad we’ve been able to point him in the right direction.

Work experience gets mixed reviews, but we find it a great way of getting young people engaged with engineering. It’s like a two-week interview for an apprenticeship… and the industry desperately needs a regular injection of those.

For Groveley, it works like this… before candidates come, we ask the local schools to check for serious interest and we interview them. if they show a genuine interest, we host two or three each year (one at a time for two weeks) and invest time introducing them to machinery and the industry.

Luke spent one week on CNC lathes and one week on CNC mills – and he excelled in helping program the CNC mills. If he’s still interested after his final year at school, we’d like to talk to him about an apprenticeship.

And modelling this year’s corporate wear…

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

Our business is now looking so smart and runs so professionally, we thought we would take it a bit further and introduce our first uniform. 

They say a corporate appearance shows that your staff are ready to do business. And that customers cannot help but be impressed by a professionally-presented member of staff in corporate wear.

So you see… it’s not just an excuse to wear a little black dress…

Books... books... books!

[Online PR for slum charity Child of Hope]

With the advent of the technology age, printed books may seem to be losing the fight against the computer. But here at Child of Hope, we absolutely lurve books!

Reading for pleasure is pretty much taken for granted in the UK, but in Uganda most people only ready for necessary information (text books, reports, the Bible, etc). But we believe that reading stories is essential for a child’s growth – not only does it improve their reading ability and vocabulary, but also their creative thinking, which leads to creative problem-solving.

When we read, we are forced to imagine… creating pictures in our minds. And between readings, if it’s a good book, the anticipation makes us imagine what will happen next. Of course, if it’s a really good book, we sit up with it all night until it’s finished!!

So we have a rare thing in Uganda… an ever-expanding children’s library! Huge thanks go to schools who have donated books, and to Pat and her team at Friends of Teso who organised the container which brought the latest batch of books over to us.

Enough… I’ve got to get back to my book!

• Picture by Alexander Rhind

On our way to Farnborough

[Online PR for Groveley Precision Engineering]

Groveley is heading to the Farnborough International Airshow again in 2016 (July 11-17) – it’s a major showcase for us to the aerospace world.

We’ll go with a clear objective; to obtain increased levels of high-quality jobs to make best use of our highly-skilled workforce – and our £600,000 investment in additional new machinery earlier this year.

2014 was a brilliant year for the show – at the opening, Prime Minister David Cameron said: “It’s great to be back at Farnborough to celebrate what I see as the very best of British industry.”

Groveley regularly exhibits at the bi-annual airshow and 2014 was an extremely positive event for us too!