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'We've lots of Santas and Snowmen all ready for embroidering/ said Sandra as she set her machine running for another order.

'And people are already asking me to put their children's names on Christmasstockings/ she added as she found a moment to talk, leav ing her 12-needle single-head com pact machine to lake its instructions from the computer disk.

Sandra Buxton is well used to being busy embroidering, having previously worked for the nowdeparted Personal Touch and Stitches, and her machine has hardly stopped its multi-coloured whirring since she set up on her own about a year ago. Since then news of the quality of her work and prices has spread to the extent that she now embroiders for the Air Training Corps back in the UK, sending off regular parcels in quick response to their requirements.

That began when they started asking me to embroider their badges onto their clothing when they were here for their summer camps.' she explained, although most of her work is fairly local: all the school uniform badges, as well as embroidering logos onto sweatshirts, knitwear, polo shirts, t-shirts, jackets, fleeces, trousers and caps for a range of customers that just about represents a full cross-section of local life. This in cludes most clubs and associations, (both civilian and joint services), companies, the Gibraltar Tourist Board,and a lot of private individu als.

Sandra, who originates from York but who has been fully settled in Gibraltar for fourteen years, ex plained that a regular part of her busy business comes from people just wanting a one-off piece of em broidery, sometimes bringing the item in themselves.'A lot of people bring towels in to have their name put on them;' she said as one ex ample, but there are also custom- is made of this quality personalisa tion service is the embroidering of names or initials onto serviettes. This latter appeals to restaurateurs the twelve-needle machine means that up to a dozen colours can be incorporated into to the embroidery, whether the design is simple or complicated ers who want a baby's name em broidered on the little one's clothes or perhaps their blankets or pil lows. This can be the parents or it might be someone making a sim ple baby gift into something special and memorable. Another use that and hoteliers as well as style-con scious hosts.

Sandra is emphatic about qual ity.'You just can't embroider onto low quality material;' she said. However, in order to give her cus tomers the maximum freedom of choice, Sandra offers, where possi ble, a range between high quality and superb.

Sandra pointed out that whilst a job simply involving lettering,such as a name or a slogan, can be car ried out almost at once after choos ing the typeface, anything more elaborate that involves graphic de sign needs to be brought to her ei ther on disk or sent by email.

Normally,small jobs can be com pleted in a day, but even the larger and more complex pieces of em broidery or those requiring cloth ing to be specially ordered are usu ally completed within a week.And the twelve-needle machine means that up to a dozen colours can be incorporated into to the embroi dery, whether the design is simple or complicated.

Stitch Design is situated in one of the units in the patio near the top of City Mill Lane, number 56 to be precise, and its sign is clearly dis played both outside and in.

Open straight through from 10.30 to 6, Monday to Friday, the tel ephone and fax number is 45966, mobile 56590000. Orders and en quiries can be sent by email, al though care needs to be taken with the address: sandra4stichdcsign@ yahoo.com. The tricky part is that in order to register the address the second't' had to be omitted from the'stitch' part,thus it is'stich'. Not a serious problem, however, given that the business has blossomed from the very first time those twelve bobbins started spinning and in the time that I was there it had become clear to me that the se cret of Sandra's success lay in her dedicated attention to detail.

Last month the Gibraltar Tourist Board launched its new image at a reception at the Mount. The new GTB corpo rate image uses a silhouette of the Rock, which is a powerful symbol and universally known; the sun suggests Mediterra nean warmth, and the colour blue reflects the colour of the sea and sky. The concept and colour scheme are also the ba sis for a new range of tourist lit erature including a brochure, dav-trip leaflet and mini-guide.

A calmer count down to

Christmas — courtesy NatWest NatWest is entering into the Christmas spirit early and helping people with their finan cial needs over the festive season by opening for business on Sat urday mornings.

Recognising that the count down to Christmas can be a stressful time, NatWest is the first bank in Gibraltar to respond to customers' needs by opening at the weekend. Between Novem ber 22and December 20, NatWest will be open on Saturdays be tween 9.15 am and 1 pm.

Kerry Blight, Regional Man ager of NatWestsaid:"Christmas is fun. But the last few weeks be fore December 25 can be quite stressful, as we rush to finish off our shopping and tidy up our fi nances before the start of a New Year. We believe opening on a Saturday is a 'first' in Gibraltar. But that's not unusual for us. At NatWest we are always looking for innovative ways to make our customers' lives easier. By open ing on Saturdays we can take some of the hassle out of the tra ditional Christmas panic. Per sonal customers will be able to call into the bank at a time that suits them and relax,secure in the knowledge that we are there to help."

As well as everyday banking transactions, customer services staff will be available to assist with general enquiries and open new personal accounts.And as Christ mascan be an expensive time,staff will be on hand to discuss over drafts and personal loans. Cus tomer advisers will also be avail able to talk about mortgages and provide free full financial reviews to see if they can save customers money.

Kerry Blight continued: "This new move once again shows our commitment to the local Gibraltar retail market and contrasts strongly with other banks who have either left local retail bank ing or heavily increased charges. It's certainly good news for our customers. With Christmas fast approaching,its important that we do all we can to help our custom ers plan ahead.Saturday opening makes sense. And starting off in November means we'll be doing our bit to help our customers in the busy build up to the festive season."

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Quality, in terms of service as well as product, has been the keynote of the Beacon Press success story,from its small beginnings — when, in 1986, Gigi Sene s^iotted a niche in the local market and opened a small shop on Cloister Ramp — to become Gibraltar's major supplier of commercial stationery, with a substantial warehouse in the Europa Business Centre and a retail outlet that last month doubled the size of its original premises.

Apart tmm computers, which the Senes argue arc already well served by other outlets on the Rock, The Beacon Press reckons to be able to provide "everything one needs to fit out an office" — from paper clips to office furniture.

With a staff ofseven,Gigi and her brother Alf(who joined her at Bea con three year's ago after deciding to "down-size" from an increas ingly stress-filled job in Bristol)set themselves the target of "being known as the company that's help ful" — a goal that they've clearly achieved, attracting custom not only from the Rock's business and financial community but from firms and individuals along the Costas.

"I'm strong on customer care,so when selecting staff we take on peo ple we can mould and motivate," explains Alf, whose 32 years spent running community enterprises in cluding advice and cultural centres has honed his people-management skills and who now manages the staff and financial side of Beacon's business.

"Gigi has a comprehensive, al most encyclopaedic knowledge of sourcing products and understands the local market's needs inti mately," he adds."Between us we make a 'fit' and produce a sort of chemistry that has helped the com pany grow dramatically over the past two to three years."

Gigi, who wanted a business of her own, set up in Gibraltar as a printer's agent in the mid 19803 af ter a chance meeting with the owner of a British printing works.

"As I established contacts and took orders for work to be done in the UK, several of my clients also asked me to arrange to supply their stationery," she tells me. "There were only a couple of stationery outlets on the Rock at the time and there was a niche crying out to be filled. Fortunately, the UK printer had a partner who was in that line of business and he gave me contacts among the suppliers as well as a lot of advice."

So she took over the small shop on Cloister Ramp. and hasn't looked back since The Beacon Press came into being.

"In a sense it was lucky that I had opened the shop, for the printer went bankrupt when his wife'took

Paula and Catrina — friend!}/ staffat Beacon Press him to the cleaners' after discover ing that he was having an affair with an 18-ycar old employee," Gigi says.

A few months ago when the paint shop adjacent to Beacon be- such as ink cartridges, DVDs...and even security cameras.

"It has taken three months of hard work to get the display area right.. to be able to display the range of products that an\' office warehouse we can source it for them — quickly — from our net work ofsuppliers. For offices order ing bv phone we guarantee deliverv on the following day.. some thing our big customers — banks, legal firms and accountants — ap preciate." came vacant the Senes acquired the premises and with considerable structural work extended the retail outlet to provide greater walk-in retail facilities allowing the display of new lines and a greater range of products including computer sta tionery and computer consumables needs to function and to transfer the company's ethos of service and quality into a friendly, helpful am bience that the walk-in customer can feel," Alf says.

The brother and sister team stress the importance to the firm's success of an awareness of the local marketensuring that people buy locally and keeping the pound in Girbaltar thev are alert to competi tion from Spanish wholesalers and retailers. But they have a major ad vantage — which attracts consid erable custom from expatriates and English-speaking firms along the coast — the instructions accompa nying the products which they sell are in English!

And anyone who, like myself, has struggled to comprehend in structions on theSpanish version of an ink cartridge or other computer stationery that's an unbeatable plus.

"And if a customer comes in and asks for something which we don't have in stock either in the shop or

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At a recent event held in the Eliott Hotel, Image Graphics,local agents for Xerox,introduced some excellent new colour copiers, print ers and all in one office machines designed to do away with the need for multiple machines in a busy office which can be a drain on con sumable resources. For more infor mation on new Xerox products contact Image Graphics on 79693 or Fax: 71892.