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Broughton Crangrove's New Customer Service

Broughton Crangrove's vast portfolio of leading branded, premier products and appliances, presented quarterly in the company's price book, is now fully supported by a new Product Returns team.

The Products Returns department consists of a team of four, responsible for co-ordinating faulty, damaged or unwanted products. This new service team will bring a greater level of service and support for customers quickly and efficiently.

'We are proud of our huge fully stocked range, ready for next day delivery throughout the majority of the UK. To date our sales team has managed all aspects of the business from sales orders, deliveries and returns. In order to continue to improve and enhance our service levels to our customers we have introduced a dedicated customer service product returns team to handle this segment of the business. This will make trading easier for our customers and quicker for everybody, ' explains Allan Nutter, Commercial Director, Broughton Crangrove.

Allan goes on to say, 'Broughton Crangrove is constantly expanding, introducing new feature-led market leading brands regularly. The steady expansion and product introductions are investments for the future and reinforces our market leadership, and this new service will be an added benefit.'

Full details of the product returns procedure are highlighted at the front of the new July Price Book.

Hotline number: 0870 241 6847

Arrow and Kermi get Straight to the Point
 
Pictured at Kermi’s Training Centre at Corby are the Directors and Sales Executives of Arrow Distributors Ltd of Worcester with their counterparts from Kermi UK.

Having established a reputation for providing a high level of service Arrow has decided to strengthen its Shower Enclosure programme and has teamed up with Kermi UK in a quality based partnership supplying and fitting Kermi’s full range of products. Kermi products will be displayed in the new showroom facility at Arrow’s head office in Worcester.

The Sales Teams will work closely together offering technical competence upfront to establish the best specification. For Kermi’s part it will underpin service levels with its scheduling service. This service oils the wheels of getting there on time and will put Arrow in an off the shelf stock position married to the Developers build programme and todays needs for sound supply chain management.

Commenting on the new approach Mike Barnes Managing Director of Arrow stated:
‘Both companies have proven records with Housebuilders and both share the view that the trend is increasingly for well engineered design, recognisable product quality and a service level that brings with it a trouble free fitting service.
Together we meet all the criteria and the streamlined all in service will remove one of the Developers long standing headaches. Arrow and Kermi are getting straight to the point ‘

For further information contact:
Arrow Distributors Ltd. Kermi (UK) Ltd.
Tel. 01905 363000 Tel 01536 446609
Web: http://www.arrow-distributors .co.uk

Kermi (UK) Ltd
Tel: 01536 446609
Email: mailto:info@kermi.co.uk

Free Those Rubber Gloves
 
Only around 25% of UK households own a dishwasher. That means 75% of the nation are still slaving over a hot sink when there’s absolutely no need.

Dishwashers are more hygienic, use less water and free up hours every day and this year’s Bosch dishwashers are better than ever, making now a good time to rid yourselves of those rubber gloves once and for all. All for only 16p a day.

The AAA rated premium Logixx range features multi ‘A’ wash, meaning improved cleaning across all programmes above quick wash. The ‘Auto Clean’ button cuts out the guess work when selecting a programme, using a system of hydrosensors to ascertain the best programme length and temperature for the load. VarioFlex Plus baskets and a large item spray head mean that nothing need be left out of the dishwasher for washing up by hand. The baskets easily accommodate long stemmed glasses and even feature small item clips, ideal for egg cups, tupperware bowls, babies’ bottles and plastic lids.

There’s also Auto3in1 on all Exxcel models for those consumers who want to use ‘3-in-1’ tablets. The dishwasher adjusts the programme temperatures accordingly, ensuring perfect washing and drying results every time.

Exxcel dishwashers feature a new 45° quick wash programme, plus most Exxcel and Logixx models now feature the reduced time programme giving the consumer programme times up to 25% quicker. Exxcel models also feature multi A wash, Flex premium baskets as well as an Auto Clean option.

For a more simple machine, Classixx is the answer. All Classixx dishwashers are also AAA rated, using as little as 14 litres of water and feature a height adjustable upper basket in the 5 programme model.

If there’s not much space to accomodate a dishwasher, then there are 45cm options across the range in both white and silver. In addition, the company's table top Compact dishwashers have been re-designed.

'All Bosch dishwashers are easy to load and use and as market leaders, you can be sure of the most advanced technology on the market as well as the reliability and quality you’ve come to expect from Bosch.' says the company.

Tel: 0870 727 0446
Web: http://www.boschappliances.co.uk

Kitchen Voices, Still Lives - An Exhibition of Photography by Robert Teed

We are all nosey, however much we pretend we aren't. We all want to know how our fellow human beings live. The media plays on this curiosity, with magazines and TV shows dedicated to showing us other people's houses, usually 'styled' and commodified as objects of so much worth to buy or sell or aspire towards owning.

Now a new exhibition of specially-commissioned photography at the Geffrye Museum taps into our curiosity about how other people live. This time, however, there is no styling, no commodification: the homes depicted are not to be bought or sold, but are simply the spaces that ordinary people inhabit. Here are the urban middle classes uncovered: this is how some of us really live now.

Kitchen Voices, Still Lives is an exhibition by London-based photographer and journalist Robert Teed. Concentrating on the kitchen and the room beyond/surrounding it, he presents a series of 'photographic interventions' taken in eight neighbouring houses. These include the photographer's own house, part of what he describes as a 'typical Victorian terrace in south London'. This exhibition has an ambitious agenda, attempting to tease out the architectural; cultural, social and domestic similarities and differences in the spaces it encounters.

Teed is fascinated by the kitchen as 'space of mythical significance... the archetypal nurturing zone'. He set out on this project 'to explore whether in our kitchens we are enacting an urban equivalent of the pastoral myth/ideal of the kitchen as the heart/hearth of the home'.

These photographs depict similarity and uniqueness in equal measure. They show us that within the architecturally repetitive structure of a terrace, many things are familiar - the positioning of windows, sinks and stoves, for instance. They show us too, a certain universality of clutter - whether on worktops, tables or notice boards. But beyond the broad motifs of urban terraced living, beyond the stainless steel pans, the olive oil and wine bottles, individuality asserts itself in the imagery of every household.

Teed is keen to stress the lack of artifice in the images: 'my aim was to act as impartially as an agent of record as I could: not to touch the spaces, but to regard their contents purely as objets trouvees' Access was gained at short notice, and occupants were specificaliy asked not to tidy up (although some surfaces appear suspiciously clean - including those in the photographer's own house). But Teed is also alive to the fact that by 'intervening' as a photographer, with all the paraphernalia of medium format camera and tripod, and by the act of framing the images, he imposes an inevitable aesthetic on the spaces that are captured on film.

The exhibition explores this tension between the documentary and aesthetic functions of photography to great effect. And while there are plenty of interesting details here about the way we live to satisfy our innate nosiness, it will be the artistic quality of the images - their lyrical, at times elegiac, beauty - that lingers in the memory long after the visitor has left the museum.

Web: http://www.geffrye-museum.org.uk

Tackling Misleading Credit Advertising

The OFT launched a review of credit advertising at the Trading Standards Institute conference in Manchester on Tuesday 22nd June. The review will monitor compliance by advertisers and publishers with the law. Enforcement action will follow where it is needed.

The OFT hopes to carry out the review in partnership with the trading standards service (TSS) who will review regional newspapers in their areas. Six regions have so far said they are ready to help.

In a short review of eight national tabloid and broadsheet newspapers carried out in November last year, the OFT found that 36 per cent of credit advertisers failed to comply with the Consumer Credit Act and the Consumer Credit (Advertisements) Regulations. A further review of six Scottish newspapers in January found that 48 per cent of credit advertisers did not comply. Those breaches included:

* omitting the APR (where it is required by law) or failing to give it due prominence
* advertising credit agreements as ‘interest-free’ where borrowers in fact are liable to interest charges should they fail to pay off the full sum by a specified date
* failing to give information on brokers’ fees and other charges that have to be paid under the agreement advertised (when it is required by law)
* using very small print.

Following these reviews, the OFT has secured undertakings from advertisers using its powers under the Enterprise Act . Advertisements have been changed or withdrawn as a consequence.

The OFT and trading standards services will work with publishers to help ensure that advertisements that do not comply with the regulations are not accepted. The OFT will provide training for the trading standards service in the autumn, and will publish guidance on compliance with revised legislation due to come into force in October 2004. The OFT is also discussing enforcement co-operation and co-ordination with the FSA in this area. The OFT plans further reviews of other advertising media including print and direct mail.

Christine Wade, OFT Director of Consumer Regulation and Enforcement said:
'With changes to the law due later in the year, it is the right time to take further steps to ensure that credit advertising is clear, fair and not misleading. We will explain the law to business through guidance. Where necessary, we will take enforcement action against advertisers who fail to comply with the regulations and also the publishers where appropriate. We welcome the support of our trading standards partners in this work.’

Alcoa Wins New Product Award
 
The Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors (CCGD) selected Reynolds® Release™ Non-Stick Grill Foil as the winner and best new product in the Paper, Plastics and Foil Category during its 11th annual Canadian Grand Prix New Product Awards (year 2003-2004) program held recently in Banff, Alberta, Canada.

The Canadian Grand Prix New Product Awards™ (CGPNPA) celebrates advancement and excellence in new food industry products, to further encourage manufacturer innovation and to profile continued value to consumers. Products receiving the award are considered to be the benchmark for excellence and innovation, and since the first set of awards was handed out over a decade ago, an impressive number of Grand Prix winners can still be found on the market today.

Alcoa Consumer Products, a business of Alcoa Inc., is proud of the recognition for this innovative product. Reynolds® Release™ Non-Stick Grill Foil is individual sheets of extra heavy duty foil that are perforated and coated with a special food-safe non-stick finish. They are essential for making grilling easier and for no-mess clean ups:

* No need to use messy non-stick cooking sprays - food won't stick to Release Grill Foil sheets.
* Each sheet efficiently covers the grilling surface and helps keep the grill clean.
* Prevent food from falling in between the grill racks.
* The perforations allow for the full grilled flavour to be absorbed into the food while the fat drains away.

The Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors (CCGD) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing and promoting the interests of the grocery distribution industry across Canada. CCGD members represent more than 80% of grocery distribution in Canada and include large and small retail and wholesale operations, foodservice distributors as well as allied members, who provide support services to CCGD members.

Alcoa Consumer Products is a global leader in the consumer packaged goods industry, supplying high quality and trusted foil, film and paper products to the retail and foodservice sectors. Within Alcoa Consumer Products, there are four businesses that globally manufacture and market branded and private label products. Reynolds Consumer Products is home to many well-recognised brands such as Reynolds Wrap® Aluminum Foil, Reynolds® Plastic Wrap and Reynolds® Cut-Rite® Wax Paper. Other businesses include Presto Products Company, a major supplier of products ranging from private label food and disposable bags to packaging closures to soil stabilisation materials, Baco Consumer Products, the leading supplier of household wraps and bags in the U.K., and Reyco, a South American manufacturer and marketer of consumer and foodservice packaging products.

Alcoa Inc. is a leading producer of primary aluminium, fabricated aluminium and alumina. Alcoa employs over 120,000 people in 41 countries and achieved total revenues of $21.5 billion (USD) in 2003. In Canada, the company employs over 6,000 people and operates out of 27 locations, 22 of which are situated in Quebec and Ontario. Together, all of the Canadian locations manufacture components and/or products for the following industries: automobile (Alcoa Wheel Products), aerospace (Howmet), consumer packaged goods (Reynolds) and packaging design (Southern Graphics Systems).

Elementary School Bathroom puts Champion® Toilet to the Ultimate Test
 
The word 'waterfall' has a special meaning to Roy Ballard. While it conjures up for others images of clear blue water cascading down a glorious mountain terrain, it makes the elementary school building manager envision toilets overflowing in 'waterfalls', as he calls them, from the boys' bathroom. And the girls' bathroom. And just about every bathroom in the turn-of-the-century converted brownstone building in New York City's Greenwich Village.

'We get a lot of stuffed-up toilets,' he says. 'One time the youngest kids stuffed up a toilet near our rooftop play area on a Friday afternoon, and it overflowed on a weekend. The waterfall ran down the stairs, into the library, through the library floor and into the office of the middle and upper school director,' he says.

Toilets, it seems, hold a special fascination for the children, and boys in particular, at the City & Country School. The independent (private) school offers a creative, progressive curriculum for students aged two through 13, with an emphasis on problem solving through first-hand experience. Its students, like children everywhere, have been known to see the toilet as 'a magical thing that can make things disappear,' Ballard says.

Yet that very fascination was causing three to four clogs and waterfalls a week due to flushing attempts using suspicious objects: Handballs. Paper cups. Soda bottles. Keys. Popcorn. 'Handfuls' of snack crackers. Magnets taken from the science room. Other issues also caused the need to repair and even replace toilets that had gone into battle: 'The kids liked to pull the hose out of the tank and trap it between the lid and the tank, so when you flushed, it would squirt water at you,' he says.

When Ballard heard about the Champion®, a toilet designed to produce 'virtually no clogs', he was immediately suspicious and mentally filed it in the same category as the 'unsinkable' Titanic. But he took it on as a challenge and opted to have a Champion installed in the school's ultimate proving ground: the boys' bathroom.

City & Country School holds the distinction of being among the first installations of the Champion Toilet featuring America's Best™ Flushing System. Recently developed for residential and nonresidential use by American Standard, the manufacturer of kitchen and bath products, the Champion is designed to eliminate everything consumers hate about toilets - clogs, overflows, plunging, handle jiggling, wasted water and expensive repairs. The school opted to install two of the toilets in the boys' bathroom and faculty/visitor bathrooms, respectively.

Lest it tempt students to try even more flushing fiascos, if not hundreds of flushes per day, the school opted not to inform the boys about the Champion's superior flushing capabilities: Its ability to flush 1.6 gallons of water in under a second, with virtually no clogs. Its extra-large flush valve which allows water to enter the bowl faster for a more powerful flush. Its extra-large internal waterway, the largest in the plumbing industry, which allows more volume per flush and virtually no clogging, overflow or fix-it hassle.

And best of all, its tank design that deploys a Flush Tower™ in place of the traditional floating-ball-and-chain system, so there is no "hose" to dismantle or use to squirt water at one's friends.

Most important, the school chose not to divulge the toilet's flush-testing track record. In independent tests conducted by SGS U.S. Testing, the Champion's performance was superior to the competition. For example, in one test, 41 rubber tubes were driven down the drain in one fast and furious flush. Another flush eliminated 31 synthetic sponges, and a third made 16 cloth napkins disappear. These are not facts one safely reveals to curious young boys.

The school's cautionary move was unfounded, however, as the Champion proved to be an excellent flusher despite its intellectually curious users. The students tend to be intrigued by how things work, Ballard says, so he senses a 'teachable moment' coming on regarding the Champion's unusual internal technology. In the six months since the installation, he's been surprised and impressed by the performance of the toilets, now dubbed internally the 'uber' toilets. 'If you have a facility that has bathrooms in a high-traffic area, I would definitely give these toilets a try,' he says. 'I have absolutely not had a single call on the Champion toilets. No hose problems. No tank problems. No leak problems.'

No clogs - and no waterfalls, either.

Web: http://www.bestflush.com

Maytag Corporation Questions its Inclusion on CalPERS' 2004 Focus List

The Maytag Corporation on 9th June questioned the company's inclusion in CalPERS' (California Public Employees' Retirement System) 2004 Corporate Governance Focus List.

Maytag does not belong on the list
This year's annual list includes Maytag among four public companies targeted by CalPERS' for the 2004 proxy season. Maytag voiced its disappointment in CalPERS' decision, given the openness with which it approached the review process. Roger Scholten, Maytag's senior vice president and general counsel, said, 'Many of the companies included in CalPERS previous Focus Lists have faced regulatory or judicial scrutiny. Maytag faces no such challenges.'

Maytag does not qualify under CalPERS 'criteria'
CalPERS on its website claims to have three criteria for inclusion on the list:
* Relative stock price performance
* EVA performance
* Corporate governance

Maytag believes that its performance relative to S & P and peers as well as periodic EVA generation in each of the last six years should alone disqualify Maytag from consideration. As disclosed in CalPERS' fact sheet, Maytag's one and three year Total Return Performance was significantly above the S & P 500 Index. By many non-biased evaluators Maytag also ranks high on corporate governance.

Maytag met with CalPERS
Maytag has discussed these issues with CalPERS on several occasions. In one daylong meeting at its corporate headquarters, Maytag made available several members of its board and a number of senior members of the management team. The company shared public information about its strategies to improve performance and discussed in detail the concerns CalPERS had about a few governance matters. Scholten noted, 'CalPERS praised Maytag's policy of linking compensation to financial performance, but included the company on its 2004 Focus List despite the considerable progress made in resolving many of CalPERS' concerns.' Maytag has already adopted (or is in the process of adopting) several of CalPERS' suggestions.

ISS (Institutional Shareholder Services) rates Maytag as outperforming 96% of Consumer Durables and Apparel Group
In November 2003, ISS (Institutional Shareholder Services), which advises many institutional investors on proxy matters, gave Maytag a CGQ (Corporate Governance Quotient) of 96%, indicating the company outperformed 96% of the companies in the consumer durables and apparel group. That ratio remained unchanged through May 2004. Maytag agrees with ISS that it is in the top echelon in terms of corporate governance. Here's why:
* Ten of Maytag's 11 directors are independent. The only insider is
Ralph F. Hake, chairman and CEO. All committees except the executive
committee are comprised of independent directors.
* Much of the compensation of the CEO and the senior executive group is
tied to financial performance metrics. There was no CEO bonus payout
for 2003.
* The CEO's long-term (three-year) incentive is tied to return on net
assets and total shareholder return, resulting in a payout in stock,
not cash, for 2001-2003.
* More than half of the CEO's stock options are premium-priced. The CEO
has aggressive stock ownership guidelines that require personal
investment in addition to stock-based compensation awards. Stock
options cannot be repriced without shareholder approval.
* All directors attended the 2004 annual meeting.
* The CEO, senior executives and directors have no loans granted by the
company.CalPERS announced that it would withhold support for re-election of a majority of directors (90 percent in 2004) within its U.S. investments, primarily due to a concern about 'conflicts of interest' between directors and auditors.
CalPERS elected not to withhold votes for any of Maytag's directors.

This year, all four Maytag directors were elected by at least 77 percent of the shares voting-unchanged from 2003 at 79 percent.

Roger Scholten, concluded, 'We see no legitimate justification for CalPERS to include the company on its annual Focus List, which in the past has been reserved for companies at the 'bottom of the barrel' on good corporate governance.
'In addition, we believe the criteria applied to Maytag was inconsistent with CalPERS claimed principles for evaluation. Despite CalPERS' assertions that this is a performance and governance issue, it would appear that CalPERS' decision was based solely on shareholder majority vote issues without evaluating the individual merits and the facts that Maytag presented.'

Maytag Corporation is a leading producer of home and commercial appliances with 12 manufacturing facilities in the United States. Its products are sold to customers in the United States and in international markets.

Web: http://www.maytagcorp.com