When the Corporate Gifts Company started in business almost 20 years ago, all our promotional items and corporate gifts were either made by us, or other UK manufacturers. As with a lot of industries, we found we couldn’t compete with Far Eastern imports and reluctantly hung up our manufacturing boots, so to speak, and joined the masses importing from the Far East. We ensured we only worked with quality suppliers and the range of our products grew and grew.
With recent “reversals” in currency exchange rates (from an importers’ perspective of course) and soaring costs out of the Far East, suddenly “Made in the UK” is now less of rose tinted view of past times and more of a reality.
We at the Corporate Gift Company are only too happy to grab the opportunity of manufacturing again in the UK, and we are currently working on lots of new ideas to launch in the new year. There are lots of benefits that will directly effect the service and product we can offer.
1. Made in the UK means a vastly reduced carbon footprint – no shipping a promotional product from one side of the world to another.
2. Although we always strive to work only with ethical suppliers (as you can see from our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy, manufacturing ourselves or with well known UK companies means that ethical issues are even more assured.
3. Faster turn around times. Obviously when we have an item in stock our turnaround times for plain or branded promotional items are second to none. But the time for replenishing stock from the Far East is becoming longer and longer. Items made in the UK will be faster.
4. Bespoke Items (awards, trophies, plaques, corporate jewellery) will become even more flexible with more options and faster turnarounds.
So, watch this space. There’ll be loads of new and exciting product launched on the website in January.
Archive for December, 2008
VAT@15% – What does it mean for the Corporate Gifts Co?
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008As is always the case in modern politics, we all knew the PBR headline measures before Alaistair Darling stood up in the House of Commons on Monday. So no surprise that the headline rate of VAT went doen from 17.5% to 15%. But what does it mean internally for a company like The Corporate Gifts Company? In short, a big headache! Lots of disruption, lots of changes to systems, pricing, pricelists, websites etc etc.
Obviously, we’d all do anything required if it meant that it will kickstart the economy and persuade individuals and corporates to loosen the purse strings in the run up to Xmas. Personally I think with more bad news (tax rises, a rise in NI etc) not that far away, I don’t think the UK public or businesses are that gullable. Well, we’ll see.
Of course, as a B2B promotional gifts website, The Corporate Gifts Company sells its advertising products ex-VAT (i.e. prices are quoted without VAT which is added at the end at the time of invoice). And as it all just goes round in a circle (effectively collecting and looking after the government’s tax for a short period of time) it doesn’t mean an awful lot!
So, in the world of corporate gifts it’s on with the work, stay positive, and fingers crossed.
WOW!! www.promotional-gifts-co.com
Monday, December 29th, 2008I have to take my hat off to our dedicated team of web designers (you know who you are), what a fantastic job. After enthusing only a few days ago about the upcoming launch of our new site www.promotional-gifts-co.com pencilled in, somewhat optimistically I thought, for January, we now have a live site featuring almost 10,000 promotional products, business gifts and advertising incentives.
Everything from (and you must check this out!) promotional umberellas http://www.promotional-gifts-co.com/products/Promotional_Products_30_Inch_Umbrellas_74.html
to promo baseball caps http://www.promotional-gifts-co.com/products/Promotional_Products_6_Panel_Caps_87.html
and from advertising pens http://www.promotional-gifts-co.com/products/Promotional_Products_Ballpoints1_59.html
to corporate clocks http://www.promotional-gifts-co.com/products/Promotional_Products_Desk_Clocks_107.html
We’re not finished yet, of course, there’s plenty more where they came from and we’ll be adding more products every week to give you the biggest and best range of promotional products and business gifts anywhere on the web. Not to mention the special features that will make your sourcing experience for promotional products even better.
So, now, if you can’t find what you need on our usual site www.corporate-gifts-co.com, then check out www.promotional-gifts-co.com and that should well and truly fix you up for your promotion or corporate event. And if you still can’t find what you’re looking for (and how likely is that with 10,000 products to choose from!?) then we will scour the earth to find it for you – just pick up the phone and call our dedicated promotional gift sales team on 0845 430 2902.
NEW PROMOTIONAL GIFTS WEBSITE
Sunday, December 28th, 2008Today, our team embarked on the design and production of a new website specifically for promotional products. As you will no doubt know (as you’re actually on the site now) our current website www.corporate-gifts-co.com specialises in affordable design-led high end premiums and executive incentives, but we recognise that our standard range is not always appropriate for every corporate event or promotional activity.
Of course, we have years of sourcing expertise and are always delighted to help our customers find exactly the right business gift for their particular promotion, but it is difficult for customers to grasp when our crrent website promotes mainly high quality silver and leather gifts.
The new website www.promotional-gifts-co.com will, therefore, concentrate on offering value solutions, high volume promotional products and giveaways; everything from pens to baseball caps, and umberellas to polo shirts.
What will make us different from all the other general promotional websites out there? Well, as part of the Corporate Gifts Company family, you can be assured that our service and quality will be second to none and our 20 years of experience of delivering promotional solutions on time and to budget will set us apart from the crowd.
Launch will be early January, so, as they say, watch this space. But in the meantime, if you do have any general promotional product enquiries, then call our experienced sales team and we will be able to source the right product for your promotion.
New Products Coming Soon
Saturday, December 27th, 2008Here at the Corporate Gifts Co we are always working to develop and expand our product range, and despite all the economic doom and gloom, we are striving forward with some really exciting new promotional product ideas for 2009. After all, promotional activity is essential to drive your company forward, whatever the economic outlook, and when it’s this bad, you need new and cool incentives and premiums to drive new sales.
So what are we working on?
Well, we are developing a range of eco-friendly, ethically sourced awards which will be available in standard models “off the shelf” and also bespoke options using our free design service.
My favourite is a new innovative range of promotional aluminium folders and office accessories manufactured in the UK. Again, these will be available off the shelf and as special bespoke orders. These will be great for promotion of documents and product launches and, well, the list is endless.
More Sterling Silver; our current range of sterling silver promotional items is proving so popular we are working hard on significantly expanding the range.
That’s just a small selection of the new promotional incentives we’ll be launching next year. Some are already available so if you’re particularly interested in any of the above, give our promotions sales team a call. As they say, watch this space!
www.corporate-gifts-co.com – New look with a clear message.
Friday, December 26th, 2008The Corporate Gifts Company have totally revamped our home page and templates to do justice to our unique collection of quality design-led corporate gifts.
We tried to put ourselves in the buyer’s shoes and immediately felt sorry for you guys out there sourcing your corporate incentives. Why? Well, there’s a lot of very “samey” looking corporate and business gift websites out there. ; how do you decide which website to contact? Not only that, with the bewildering choice of product they feature, how do you wade through the promotional products on there to find something that is suitable for your promotion?
Now, the Corporate Gifts Company are not trying to be all things to all buyers (to be honest, I’m not sure anyone could honestly pull that one off) but we have a very specific quality design-led range of promotional items and we felt that our site needed to tell you that from the very first millisecond that you viewed the home page. And we wanted to make it a bit Chritmassy too.
Hope you like it; www.corporate-gifts-co.com
BESPOKE FLASH DRIVES
Thursday, December 11th, 2008Memory sticks or flash drives have been one of the most popular promotional items of the past two or three years. When they initially hit the promo market their novelty alone propelled them to business gift stardom. Their popularity was maintained as the price dropped dramatically and the memory size increased (here at the Corporate Gifts Company we can remember getting excited selling our first 64mb flash drives – now we couldn’t give them away)!
Why are they so popular? Like all really popular promotional items, the flash drive combines real usefulness, is used by virtually everybody in the work environment, can be branded effectively with a corporate logo or promotional message, and is extremely desirable. They have become an indispensable part of modern computing and due to their popularity they have been innovated and developed.
New styles, designs, shapes; the choice is now bewildering. At the forefront of this development is the innovation of totally bespoke shapes incorporate branding and corporate colours.
Tooling and set up is surprisingly low, as are minimum quantities. Make use of our free design service and the Corporate Gifts Company will create a selection of bespoke options to help you realise the perfect solution to fit your corporate identity or promotional goals.
Call our sales team today on 0845 430 2902.
SO WHAT IS ENGRAVING FOR PROMOTIONAL ITEMS?
Friday, December 5th, 2008I’m sure most of you will have an idea of what engraving is, but I guess the majority will probably think of the little chap at the Open Golf Championship hand engraving the winners name at the last minute, or maybe the guy in the shoe repair shop who has a 50 year old manual engraving machine in the corner of his shop.
Times have moved on, but people still equate engraving with quality, and moreover the overall quality of the item or gift. So when buying promotional items, what does engraving mean in terms of reproducing your corporate logo?
There are many types of “marking” methods for advertising gifts, cheaper promo items tend to be printed as this is very cost effective. Leather can be embossed or blocked. Glass can be engraved or sand blasted. Etc, etc, etc. When it comes to metal items the most common method of branding is either diamond or laser engraving.
Here at the Corporate Gift Company we use diamond engraving. Laser engraving is particularly good in some circumstances and it’s resolution is particularly good on fine detail. As it actually burns the surface of the metal, however, it can effect can look “burnt” and a bit yellowy. Even when it is good it looks like a grey print. In which case, why not print it instead? Print is associated with promo giveaways, so if you are paying £20 for a promotional clock or desk item, why would you choose a branding method that cheapens the product. After all, a promotional product is all about perception and impact, so it is important to enhance the perceived value of your corporate gift, not lessen it.
At the Corporate Gifts Company we have 10 state of the art computerised diamond engraving machines to give you the quality and turnaround times necessary to make your promotion a success. Logos are plotted, vectorised and digitised using specialist software and the item is then engraved reproducing your logo as you’ve never seen it before. But even though the engraving machines are computerised, it still uses a diamond tip to mark the surface of the metal, giving the logo a shimmer that no other marking method can match, enhancing and increasing the perceived value of your corporate incentive.
Of course it’s a matter of personal taste, but 20 years of experience tells us that if you want to make the biggest impact with your executive gift, then diamond engraving is the best choice.
Call our sales team today on 0845 430 9202 to find out how we can translate your logo for maximum promotional impact.
