NEWS AND VIEWS

THE MONTH THAT WAS

Quills Group acquires Control Office Supplies

Quills Group has acquired Control Office Supplies in a deal which sees employees of the latter move across to Quills to ensure a smooth transition and continuity for customers.

Quills’ MD, Andy Efstathiou, has known the directors of Control Office Supplies for more than 15 years and was delighted to reach an agreement to acquire the business. The deal means that Control Office Supplies’ customers will be able to utilise Quills’ service offering, which includes a live chat service, larger customer services team, dedicated specials department and additional workplace services including facilities management, cleaning and hygiene, waste management, recycling, shredding, print, copier and printer solutions, branded gifts and workwear.

“Control Office Supplies and Quills share the same customer-focused attitude, as well as common platforms in online technology, national distribution network and many of the same suppliers,” said Andy. “Our aim is to provide a seamless transition where customers will continue to use the Control Office webstore, have access to the same staff and then, [later this] year, we will look to migrate customers onto our Quills webstore, which uses the same software.

“I’m delighted to welcome the Control Office Supplies employees who have joined us as part of the growing Quills family, and I look forward to our journey ahead.”

Control Office Supplies directors Matt and Christy said: “We have known Quills for many years, and we are confident that they will continue to provide the high service level and personal approach of Control Office Supplies. With many of the Control staff joining Quills we are pleased we can continue existing relationships with our clients. Along with the additional services and solutions we can now offer under Quills, we feel this is a positive opportunity for the future.” Exertis has become a pledge partner as part of the Raise the Game initiative.

Raise the Game is a collaborative pledge to improve equality, diversity and inclusion in the games industry by creating cultures where everyone belongs, voices are heard, and ideas can thrive. The pledge is a holistic driven initiative, managed and facilitated by UKIE.

To become a partner, Exertis has pledged to make meaningful change within the business to improve equality, diversity and inclusion. This involves committing to introducing a new activity, or to continuing to work on initiatives already in place to improve diversity and inclusion (D&I).

Initiatives introduced by Exertis include a dedicated Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Team (EDIT). The committee is focused on collating diversity information beyond age and gender, improving recruitment and induction practices through a D&I lens and driving education by building on celebration and awareness days with third party engagements.

EDIT was set up as a grassroots group of allies who champion inclusion across the business. The team has executive sponsorship from two board members: Vishal Chhatralia, chief digital officer, and Jo Lawrence, UK HR director.

Other initiatives include providing managers with a D&I toolkit and are committed to delivering a demonstrable contribution towards diversity representation within their area of the business.

Exertis ‘Raises the Game’ to inspire industry change

Two awards in two weeks for Stationery Supplies

Nemo Office Club member, Stationery Supplies, in Marple and Wilmslow, scooped two awards in two weeks recently, claiming the Independent Retailer of the Year award at the BOSS Awards, adding to the Best NonSpecialist Independent Retailer of Greetings Cards North award picked up at the Retas.

The BOSS Awards recognised the efforts business owner Sarah Laker made to offer a COVID-19 safe environments over the past 20 months, demonstrating an ability to ‘bounce back’ and having a positive influence within the community. The judges were impressed by the way that Sarah had campaigned for high street retailers on Radios 2, 4 and 5Live, as well as on BBC and ITV News and in the Mail on Sunday, in addition to supporting her community.

“To me retail is about being part of a community,” Sarah explained. “If our local community is prospering, and supportive of each other, that will rub off on local businesses as well. I have always had a wonderful social media following and I used that over the pandemic to promote activity, with live walkabouts the shop and highlighting actions taken to ensure the safety of our customers. I also shaved my head during lockdown to raise £7,500 for a local charity; that created huge amounts of interest in the shop and our role in the community!”

In addition to being proactive in the community of Marple, where she produces a Marple calendar that has raised more than £400 for charity, Sarah chose the pandemic and lockdown as a good time to open a second shop in neighbouring Wilmslow. “It seemed too good an opportunity to miss. It gave me the opportunity to replicate what had been achieved in Marple. The timing could have been better, but I have had fantastic support from my suppliers and Nemo Office Club – so far, so good, as the Stationery Supplies brand and reputation continues to expand in the area.” Brother has achieved carbon neutral status for its recycling and environment technology centre in North Wales as the business commits to reaching netzero carbon emissions globally by 2050.

The site at Ruabon, which recycles used toner cartridges returned by Brother customers from across Europe, uses 100% green-certified electricity to power the plant and a fleet of electric vehicles. Globally, Brother recycles more than 2.6 million toner cartridges every year.

The centre was certified by The Carbon Trust, which includes a calculation on the site’s scope 1 and 2 emissions determined by direct and indirect emissions from energy sources and emissions associated with vehicle use.

Brother has offset the remaining 173 tonnes of CO2e (FY2020) produced annually through the purchase of carbon credits to support the development of renewable energy projects in Kenya, Ghana, Indonesia and India. These projects include supplying clean energy for people with no access to electricity, providing 820,000 insulated fuel-efficient stoves to help feed families and reduce deforestation, and making affordable water filters to increase access to safe water.

Additionally, the business also donates to rainforest charity, CoolEarth, for every cartridge it receives, which are 100% reused or recycled.