autumn/winter 2006 trade suppliers of washroom and cleaning products
www.futures-supplies.co.uk  
020 8689 2072

contents
 
 
welcome

Welcome to the autumn/winter edition of the Futures newsletter. It is amazing to think that in August we celebrated the first year in our new premises. We hope that the new vastly expanded warehouse has ensured improved operations to all our customers and that we are continuing to evolve our commitment to customer satisfaction by delivering quality, value, service and reliability to all our customers. We were delighted to have been awarded a prestigious ‘Big Tick’ in recognition of our commitment to tackling long-term sustainability, which could not have been achieved without the support of all our customers, suppliers and the dedicated team of staff at Futures. Finally, we hope to provide an informative and interesting newsletter and would welcome any comments or ideas for future editions.

 
Mandie Kemp
Managing Director
 
 
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awarded a prestigious ‘big tick’
L-R: Stephen Howard, MD, Business in the Community, Daniel Hills, Operations Manager, Futures Supplies
 
In this year’s prestigious ‘Business In the Community Awards’ in association with the Financial Times and sponsored by the Department of Trade and Industry, Futures was delighted to have received the widely recognised ‘Big Tick’. Futures was recognised with a ‘Big Tick’ for its commitment to its community, charity and environmental projects whilst tackling long-term sustainability. The Awards for Excellence 2006 are the most prestigious Corporate Social Responsibility awards in the UK and are now in their ninth year. They are run by Business in The Community, a unique movement in the UK of
 
over 750 member companies whose purpose is to inspire, engage, support and challenge business in continually improving its impact in the community with the president being HRH The Prince of Wales. Presented with the ‘Big Tick’ at the London and South East regional awards champagne reception, Futures is proud to be recognised as a sustainable, responsible business and for its impact on society. Futures hopes its success will inspire and encourage other small businesses to give support and become involved in the regeneration of their local community and consider their influence beyond the workplace.
Find out how to become involved and to read the full Futures case study visit www.bitc.org.uk
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satisfied customers
Customer Satisfaction Surveys have always been an important part of the Futures strategy to understand and respond to customers’ needs, ensuring continual improvement in the four key areas of service, quality, value and reliability.

Here are the results of the last survey and a big thank you for taking the time to complete the survey and assisting in raising valuable funding for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.

If you have any comments or suggestions regarding the quality of service we provide to you, please telephone 020 8689 2072 and a member of the customer services team will be happy to help you.

 
telephone calls Agreed
Are your calls answered promptly? 91%
Do you find our staff helpful and polite? 94%
 
deliveries Agreed
Do our deliveries arrive in good time? 93%
Do your deliveries arrive complete
and accurate? 		90%
 
administration Agreed
Do you find our invoices accurate? 93%
If so, are they dealt with efficiently? 91%
 
sales Agreed
Are you aware of our full product range? 89%
Are all your requirements met by
our sales staff?		 90%
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giving young people an opportunity

Following the success of previous work experience placements, Futures has continued to support young careleavers by giving two young men permanent part time employment following their 12 week work placements.

Both Luke and Jason are doing very well in their new roles and Futures is pleased to be able to give them both an opportunity to learn new skills and to gain confidence in the workplace.

 
Luke Smith, who is 17, successfully completed his work placement in August and joined the company on a part time basis as General Warehouse Assistant. His duties include assisting the Warehouse Manager on a day-to-day basis, loading company vehicles and providing driver support.
 
Jason Lea, who at 18, has a young son himself of only 6 months old, has also been given a part time permanent position in the company as a General Warehouse Assistant.
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do you know the risks?
Recent legislation has been introduced which highlights the risks associated with Para Dichlorobenzene especially when used in urinals. Inhalation in a confined space such as a washroom present a very real danger and now classified as hazardous waste, any unwanted material will have to be disposed of by a licensed contractor.
 
Many people are under the impression that because pDCB blocks get smaller in the urinal they dissolve in water, this is not so as pDCB is a crystallized gas and only offers a masking smell providing no cleaning efficiency at all, returning to a gaseous state while dissolving into the air.

When the pDCB blocks get small enough to drop through the urinal grating they often lodge in the trap causing expensive blockages.

Both the NON pDCB urinal blocks and Biological urinal blocks available from Futures contain NO pDCB’s and are water soluble, deodorize, clean and reduce odour problems and blockages.

 
Economical and convenient to use with a lasting freshness, which contains advanced surfactant technology they eradicate the risks associated with pDCB’s and substantial savings on washroom maintenance and water bills, as the need for constant flushing and more regular cleaning is reduced. Biological urinal blocks contain a selection of non-pathogenic, harmless mico-organisms, special odour blocking perfumes and a blend of cleaning and water softening agents.

Safe to use on all types of urinals including stainless steel they are biodegradable, safer to use and not harmful under COSHH.

To receive a free trial tub, be one of the first 100 to email your request and details to info@futures-supplies.co.uk

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chsa service excellence awards
Every two years, The Cleaning and Hygiene Suppliers Association celebrate the performance of a number of companies at the ‘Distributor Service Excellence Awards’. A record number of companies have participated in this year’s benchmarking survey giving an invaluable insight into how their business is viewed and benchmarking of their service performance against the industry as a whole.
 
The prestigious awards dinner will be held on 19th October at the Marriott Forest of Arden Hotel where successful companies will receive a certificate and a personal confidential report, which will highlight strengths and weaknesses in relation to service provided and enable companies to take the appropriate action within their own business to enhance and improve their service.
 
Futures recognise the importance of these awards and value of the independent assessment and having received the award consistently since 1997 will be keeping its fingers crossed.

Find out more by visiting the chsa website at www.chsa.co.uk

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buy recycled
 
 
 
Continuing to tackle sustainability and its objectives to provide an environmentally preferable purchasing strategy to its customers, Futures’ website now offers the facility of a search which will list all the products available that have a recycled content. Simply enter the word ‘recycle’ into the search engine as part of your search and all the recycled products will be listed.

Futures believe that this facility provides customers with the opportunity to find products that satisfy performance needs and support the path towards environmental sustainability as well as an informed purchasing choice, therefore reducing environmental impact.

Try it out for yourself today at www.futures-supplies.co.uk

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hybrid car means low emissions
As part of our ongoing commitment to our ‘travel plan’ and to ensure we continue to review our impact on the environment, Futures has recently replaced sales representative Tracey’s vehicle with a Toyota Prius Hybrid.

The vehicle offers an intelligent combination of electric and petrol engine resulting in outstanding fuel efficiency and is by far the cleanest car on the market.

The Prius was voted Europe’s most eco-friendly vehicle, received a best fuel economy award as well as the ‘Car of the Year Award’ in 2005.

 
Producing only 104g/km CO2 emissions, 40% lower than the recommended European Standard in 2005, the Hybrid Synergy Drive technology cuts fuel consumption by as much as 40% compared to a conventional petrol engine.

The Prius offers a solution to reducing environmental impact by reducing emissions, promoting cleaner fuels and reducing vehicle impact as well as saving money in reduced fuel bills, vehicle licence fees and insurance. The Prius is also congestion charge exempt making it a sound investment for business and the environment.

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futures has gone CarbonNeutral®
Human induced climate change is probably the greatest threat faced by society in the 21st Century caused through emissions and greenhouse gasses from energy conversion and industrial processing.

Futures believe that whilst it is critical, it is not enough just to reduce carbon emissions through better energy management and targets. It is a fact that we still have to drive cars and use energy as part of the commercial process and therefore until technology can provide more answers to help reduce or eliminate emissions, ’offsetting’ is the only way to deal with the problem.

The CarbonNeutral company offers best practice carbon offset projects in energy efficiency, forestry and renewable energy through independently audited and verified processes.

Futures recognise as a company that its actions have consequences and through the following has successfully addressed its impact and become a CarbonNeutral company:

  • Understanding which actions create emissions and measuring these
  • Reducing waste and taking advantage of cleaner products and technologies
  • Doing something to address our impact and accepting the cost
  • Encouraging others by sharing our story
  • A baseline assessment of Futures’ carbon footprint carried out has been aligned with the company’s strategy, that through a combination of direct emission reducing and indirect offsetting actions the net greenhouse gas emissions associated with our business are zero

For more information on going CarbonNeutral visit www.carbonneutral.com

 

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green for go - an informed purchasing choice
 
To assist our customers in making an informed choice and give environmental consideration when making purchasing decisions, Futures is launching a simple common sense approach by establishing a traffic light system of categorising products that we hope will assist customers.

When classifying products there are various issues that have to be taken into consideration, which can be exhaustive, and there is still much controversy over what is considered to be environmentally friendly.

 
There are still no firm guidelines, however as part of our long term commitment to sustainability, we hope that this method will help customers in their decisions whilst not compromising on the standard and quality of the product required to do the job.

The general scope as shown on the right will be broken into criteria for each product grouping and by clicking the traffic light on the website you will be taken to a page which gives an explanation by product category.

Red products
A product with high environmental impact that must only be used if absolutely necessary, in a controlled way and to a minimum if at all where no alternative is available to do the job. 		  Amber products
A product that has an environmental impact but may be used with care providing use is not excessive and where an alternative is not available to do the job. 		  Green products
A product that has little impact on the environment if at all, is biodegradable, recycled and carries an environmental mark such as the Nordic Swan.
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business time
On one of the hottest days of the year, Futures took part in supporting its local business community by participating at a 10-hour exhibition and networking event organised by Croydon Business.
 
Reaching an audience of 20,000 businesses with over 30 exhibitors taking part, Futures’ personnel worked hard all day getting to know local businesses and offering advice on washroom products and collecting business cards for a competition to win Marks & Spencer vouchers.
 
The four winners were thoroughly delighted with their prize with Derek Galloway, MD, Martek saying, “Thank you so much to Futures, I rarely win anything, in fact the last occasion was a jar of marmalade at the local fete!”

To find out more about Croydon Business visit www.croydonbusiness.com 

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shortlisted
Futures is delighted to have been shortlisted for the Lord Mayor of London’s prestigious Dragon Awards that recognise socially responsible businesses and their corporate community involvement in the city of London for the second year running.

You can find out more about the Dragon Awards by visiting their website
 
 Futures has also been shortlisted for a local Green Guardian Award for green business with the winner to be announced on 26th September.
 
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focus on staff

an evening at the races
In July all the staff at Futures went to Epsom races for their summer get together where an evening race meeting was held and the band Texas played live. Everyone had a great time with some winners and losers on the night! The weather was fabulous with the sun staying out late into the evening, making it the perfect summer company outing.
good luck terry
Terry Johnson retired in August after nearly a decade delivering to Futures’ customers. Staff presented him with a gold watch at his leaving party, which was held at the Costa Del Sol Tapas bar in Whyteleafe. Terry will be greatly missed by all the staff and customers and we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks and very warm wishes to Terry for all his hard work and his contribution to the business over the years.
 
welcome leiann
Futures welcomed Leiann to the team in July. Leiann who has come from a retail background is responsible for Sales Order Administration and general office duties and we wish her every success in her role.
well done andy
Office Supervisor, Andy turned up along with 27,000 riders to participate in Europe's largest cycle event to raise funds for the British Heat Foundation. The 54 mile event, which has been running since 1980 is one of the BHF biggest fundraising events and has raised more than £35 million. Andy who started bike riding as part of Futures travel plan initiative successfully completed the course and raised £245 – congratulations Andy and well done for all your efforts!
 
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