5 minute read
NEWS AND VIEWS
THE MONTH THAT WAS
Premier help with Ukraine support effort
Premier has teamed-up with volunteers from the Loughborough Student Union to deliver donations for the victims of the Ukrainian conflict.
Each year more than 4,000 students from Loughborough Student Union volunteer to help the wider community with local campaigns, projects and activities. In March, students ran a donation drive for Ukrainian refugee camps based in Poland.
The donation drive was headed up by Tomasz Cendrowski, an international student from Poland. Tomasz, the Lewisham Polish Centre and the Action Student Volunteers set about collecting donations of key items, such as medical equipment, hygiene products, dry foods, sleeping bags, torches and batteries. Three weeks later the students had collected over a ton of donations that were then booked and palleted by Event Engineering and sent to the Lewisham Polish Centre with Premier providing transport for the pallets from Loughborough to the depot, helping to save on additional transport costs. Premier also hosted a series of coffee and cake mornings across its branches on April 8.
Money can be donated online via www. justgiving.com/premier-paper with all funds raised going to the British Red Cross.
Sharp and NEC combine visual display line-up
The visual display line-up of Sharp and NEC branded products are being placed under one umbrella. Sharp NEC Display Solutions will provide customers and partners access to an enhanced portfolio and extended range of professional service offerings.
Sharp’s business products include professional and commercial displays, as well as the development of advanced technologies in interactive and 8K. NEC’s range of high-quality visual technology and digital signage solutions for a wide variety of industries are recognised by customers worldwide.
“By combining the strengths of Sharp and NEC we are providing the widest range of visual solutions across multiple technologies, all engineered for trusted, long-life, reliability,” said Sharp NEC Display Solutions Europe’s CEO Bernd Eberhardt. “For the time being, Sharp/NEC will offer two lines of displays that will be continuously aligned as we move forward.”
LOTF co-chairs announced
The BOSS Leaders of the Future Committee (LOTF) chair, Scott Castle of Staples UK, has stepped down after two years of service, in accordance with the LOTF constitution. He has been replaced by co-chairs Alex Stone, head of sales at Office Friendly, and Rachael Lewis, sales operations director at OT Group.
“The whole LOTF committee and I congratulate Scott for his exemplary leadership over a very challenging two years,” said Amy Hutchinson, BOSS CEO. “He has so much to be proud of and we are very pleased he will remain on the committee. I am absolutely delighted to welcome both Rachael and Alex to their co-chair positions. Each has unique strengths which, I believe, will be invaluable to the LOTF Committee, moving forward. Their partnership in this role is very exciting.”
Change of management at COLOP UK
Kiran D Mistry has passed day-to-day control of COLOP UK Ltd to fellow director Chris Deighton; this is a long-planned transition and Kiran is staying on as director and shareholder on a part-time basis, supporting Chris.
“It’s been a fruitful 12-year journey amalgamating three companies,” said Kiran. “This achieved, thanks to my teams, past and present; together we helped establish the COLOP brand in the UK. I wish Chris every success as we remodel our business with our exciting digital range, arts and crafts and our traditional products. This is a welcome next chapter in my professional and personal life.”
Chris added: “Since joining COLOP in March 2019 it has been a rapid rise and transition within the business. Our three defined pillars now give COLOP a great platform to succeed on different fronts in various markets - a challenge we all look forward to. I’m delighted that Kiran will continue to help drive our targets with his wealth of experience and contacts.”
Fellow directors Christoph Skopek and Franz Ratzenberger thanked Kiran for his work. “In Chris we have an extremely committed and valuable manager who will implement the already successfully initiated strategic steps, in a market which is extraordinarily important for COLOP,” they added.
This year’s annual BOSS Business Supplies Charity Day is being held on June 15 at Belton Woods Hotel, Grantham – the same venue as the BOSS Manufacturers’ Forum, which will take place on the following day.
As usual, the charity day offers a choice of two activities - golf, or the spa - followed by an evening networking dinner and the charity’s auction and raffle, all with COVID-secure measures.
“Last year’s event raised more than £14,000 towards helping the charity to financially assist over 100 families a year,” said Martin Wilde, BOSS charity chair. “Our annual charity day is a vital source of fundraising that means we can continue supporting those in need, so why not join us on June 15 and have a lot of fun playing and networking at the same time?”
Prices are as follows: ● Golf: £600 for a team of four including the evening networking dinner.
If you want to be put into a team, please let BOSS know ● Spa: £140 per person – includes one treatment, use of the spa facilities, a
Prosecco lunch and the evening networking dinner.
BOSS announces charity day
Westcoast and Dell partner
Westcoast has revealed its new partnership with end-toend IT solutions provider Dell Technologies, which could bring opportunities to resellers through innovation and accelerated digital transformation.
Westcoast will offer the Dell Technologies Client Solutions product portfolio, including notebooks, workstations, desktops, monitors and accessories. Westcoast will also distribute the Dell Technologies IT Infrastructure Solutions portfolio including storage, server, data protection and HCI.
