It's been a busy few weeks in the Printwear & Promotion office. This month I have been off on my travels and I am grateful to everyone who took the time and trouble to meet me.

The roll call this month includes Blue Max at Trowbridge. Their new warehousing operation has resulted in an impressive 99.8 per cent accuracy on picking. The £1million investment has seen the warehouse double in size, and with the introduction of a new computerised and bar-coded picking system, the investment is certainly paying off. Having ex-Army logistics expert Kevin Bullen as warehouse manager is also a bonus!

Dates have been confirmed for Printwear & Promotion 2010 in Hall 12 at Birmingham's NEC from Sunday, February 28 to Tuesday, March 2.

Arco, the UK's leading supplier or workwear and workplace safety products, has provided talkSPORT presenters Mike Parry and Andy Townsend with personalised Berghaus Arco branded soft shell fleeces.

Outdoor clothing specialists, Result Performance, supported Keswick Mountain Festival by providing more than 30 embroidered soft shell jackets to walkers, organisers and festival volunteers.

J & B Sewing Machine Co Ltd, sole UK distributor for the AnaJet digital garment printer have launched the new PolyBright inks for printing on light coloured polyester and other synthetic fabrics.

Regatta is holding prices on all products until the end of the year, maintaining Spring/Summer prices for the whole of 2009.

Blue Max, the leading importers of high quality, competitively priced school wear, leisure wear and corporate clothing is now achieving 99.8% picking accuracy at its Trowbridge warehouse.

BTC activewear has added two heavyweight names to their stable of leading workwear brands. DeWalt offer high-performance workwear with technology built in to allow the wearer to work in comfort.

Embroidery digitising company Blackdott is celebrating its second birthday with a new-look website, www.blackdott.co.uk. The two man operation was launched by Craig Austin and Laurie Barratt who, between them, have more than 30 years' digitising experience.

If you are a business owner with five to 250 employees, a director or a key manager reporting to a director, you could be eligible for up to £1,000 funding to enroll on the bpma Academy course or the Business Owner Workshop.

The first half of the year has been testing for the promotional merchandise industry, with 95 distributor companies and 26 supplier companies ceasing trading. Distributor closures are already 109% up on last year.

Many end users are now taking advantage of the rapidly expanding market for short run production of T shirts and sweat shirts, sportswear, aprons and other promotional items, according to EZtrans.

Braintree-based promotional headwear pioneers Sharon Lee have been appointed as UK distributor for the stylish Atlantis range.

Graphic Parts International Inc, which manufactures replacement pallets for most makes and models of foreign and domestic, manual and automatic textile printing machines, has created a new division to meet demand for pallets designed for specialty applications.

Phil Stone of PSM in Banbury was crowned TheMagicTouch/Ralawise regional Wii bowling champion at the recent "Open House" event.

The Little Green Book, a four page leaflet/mailer, gives an overview of the new Eco-Options products from the BagBase, Beechfield Headwear, Quadra and Westford Mill collections from Beechfield Brands, offering planet friendly solutions to all your promotional bag and headwear requirements.

Lindsey Bond has joined BTC Group's 58 strong promotional merchandise team as account manager at their offices in Hayes, near London.

Listawood have embarked on a £400,000 investment program to modernise and automate production in several of their key manufacturing areas. It will result in what Listawood say will be the most technologically advanced printing and finishing equipment of any mousemat or magnet producer in Europe. 

Printwear & Promotion has been alerted to an alleged business directory scam after an advertiser received an invoice for more than 1,000 euro from Expo-Guide.com, part of a Mexican organisation called Commercial Online Manuals S de RL de CV.

Promotional clothing and corporate wear firm, I.S.Enterprises, is backing rising British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) star Robert Gaffney.

Roland DG (UK), which manufactures eco-solvent wide-format inkjet printers, engravers and 3D prototyping products has announced the integration of Roland DG Ireland into its operations.

According to Darwin's theory of evolution, only the organisms best adapted to their environment tend to survive, while those less adapted tend to be eliminated.

Mantis World is freezing 2009 prices across its four brands - Mantis, Humbugz, Babybugz and Tender Loving Clothing for the rest of the year.  Managing director, Prama Bhardwaj, comments: "A few months ago a mid-year price increase seemed inevitable. However, the recent recovery of Sterling has meant that we have been able to keep to the same prices until the end of the year and support our customers during the economic downturn." 

Regent Innovations, the trade only suppliers of promotional merchandise, have published their new catalogue for 2009, which, they say, is bigger and better than before.

Russell jackets are designed to look good and work as hard as their wearers do. Now, a new campaign from Russell, focussing on their new, A5 jacket brochure, will help identify the right jacket for the right job.

Listawood have reduced their prices on promotional bottled water, claiming that they are now offering the "lowest prices in the UK".

Crazy Bags, one of the UK's largest promotional bag distributors, has introduced a new, free, non-branded e-brochure for clients.

A back to basics approach could help companies reduce the cost of manual handling injuries, say health and safety training specialists ForeFront Training.

BTC activewear has added the TECH range of Performance Soft Shell garments to their ever-growing Result jacket collection.

Daiber's new casual wear is a great way to show off your style. Casual cuts and a good look are hallmarks of these garments by Daiber's own brand James & Nicholson.

What is a goody bag? The name suggests that it is a bag of ‘goodies' that you want and need - something special, perhaps, that will make you remember an event.

Telephone selling has a largely poor reputation thanks, in particular, to the standards applied by the large operators who are working on behalf of other businesses. But it is still an essential part of business-to-business selling and we all need to do it.

Financial statements are vitally important and a key plank in a good system of planning tax payments. As well as forming the basis of the tax liability, and for limited companies filing with the registrar of companies, financial statements will be important to providers of finance and for credit reference agencies. It is worth making the extra effort to get the statements right.

This year, an exclusive tie-up with distributor BTC activewear has brought MASCOT's core workwear products to the UK printwear market for the first time.

The exclusive deal with BTC activewear now brings some of MASCOT's core products to UK garment decorators. In terms of the products that BTC activewear carries, MASCOT suggested the products it felt would closely match BTC activewear's market, and tempered that with its bestsellers.

MASCOT was founded on an idea and a burning desire to bring that idea to life. The idea was to make high quality workwear - the little bear in the company¹s logo coming to symbolise durability and warmth.

Let's start with one of those glib statements. ‘You have to think creatively'. It's true at all times but especially in a recession. The problem is that thinking both laterally and outside the box is a skill that few of us have. Incidentally, that's not a bad thing - if everybody was busy being creative the world would cease to function.

The headband is a highly cost effective promotional item suitable as a giveaway on marathons, cycling, inline contests and volleyball competitions as well as any other sporting event. The headband is also a popular item in yoga studios, fitness, tennis clubs and health resorts.

The 2009 BagBase collection includes a carefully-conceived range of promotional accessories, comprising three printable products in 600D polyester suitable for a number of uses.

Beechfield is confident that its B900 Morf Original will be the "promotional accessory of the summer". The new product is a versatile choice for a wide range of summer activities, and its hi-tech fabric treatment will keep you feeling fresh.

BTC activewear offer a choice of rain ponchos - an essential item for outdoor events and activities to help combat the great British weather.

Daiber's own brand Myrtle Beach offers much more than just promotional wear. The numerous accessories open up entirely new markets. From music festival to chic cruise liner, there's always a niche for high-quality accessories which can easily be embroidered.

Finden+Hales teamwear offers fantastic mix'n'match opportunities. But did you know that Finden+Hales also do team accessories?

Finding the perfect gift or giveaway can be difficult, especially when you want something that will impress your customers at the same time as not having to cost the earth.

Renowned for its huge range of promotional clothing, PenCarrie also offers a good choice of ancillary products. There's a vast range of bags and related items - wallets, washbags, coolbags and executive portfolios for example. 

As the market-leading supplier of promotional and corporate bags, PF Concept has a range suitable to meet all requirements.

From ponchos and shawls to fluffy fleece robes, teddies and golfing umbrellas, Prestige Leisure has an excellent array of ancillary products ready for decoration. The one-size Splashmacs SC10 plastic poncho in five colours is a summer essential. Made from 90gsm PVC it has a drawstring hood and popper neck fastening. It doubles up as a groundsheet and comes in a handy press fastened carry case with drawstring handle.

Decorators looking for profitable add-on sales opportunities should be sizing up the Quadra boot and shoe bags, says the brand.

With towelling, headwear, ponchos, corporate accessories and promotional items, Ralawise have a host of products suitable to allow customers to enter these new areas of business.

Shugon Bags & Leather Goods Ltd has been established in the promotional industry for more than 25 years. Products are manufactured to ISO 9001 quality standard using the finest materials and accessories.

Actions speak louder than words, and when you've got a great product, it does all the talking. A great product means one that does exactly what it sets out to, without any fuss. A great product is the SC10 Splashmac. This super rain poncho, which comes in five eye-catching colourways (yellow, silver, navy, red, clear), is a great all-rounder that can be used in all sorts of interesting ways.

Grabbing their attention is the first step in securing someone as a new customer, but to really reel them in, you have to offer something a little bit more. Tour Collection comes up trumps when it comes to eye-catching - its selection of towels are bold and bright, decorated with UK country flags in all their glory. But Tour Collection offer something more - originality - which is essential when you´re trying to stand out from the rest.

Quality plays an important role in the Towel City range and all of the items are luxurious and hardwearing.

There are a number of different qualities that cater for different needs.

UKL offer a range of ancillary products with the needs of the decorator in mind.

The Aztex towel range comprises the Aztex Classic and the luxury Egyptian towel.

Westford Mill have the perfect accessory for busy hair and beauty salons - the W115 Cotton Stuff Bag.

When Result Clothing started out in 1994, its aim was to provide jackets and clothing accessories suitable for embellishment.

With a portfolio of top drawer brands distributed in the UK through PenCarrie, Ralawise and Prestige, Lea Sportswear has more than established itself in the quality, style and performance stakes.

There is, if you will excuse the pun, a lot of "hot air" surrounding heat transfer presses. It is almost like a mystique has grown up around the machines, when in fact, all you need to know are the basics!

Whether engraving, cutting, 3D prototyping or printing, Roland has a machine for everything. It was the revolutionary PNC-5000 - the first integrated print and cut machine - that really made Roland the company it is today. Since then, Roland DG has continued to launch new and innovative products aimed at expanding the product portfolio of any user. Roland DG is committed to providing the market with products aimed to help make customers' lives easy, more efficient and above all, profitable. 

After developing our embroidery process to the largest and most advanced operation in Europe we have now added a new pick pack warehouse that perfectly complements our growing customer needs.

American Apparel is a vertically integrated manufacturer and retailer of clothing for men, women, kids and dogs. All stages of production happen under one roof at its downtown Los Angeles factory - from cutting and sewing, right through to the photography and marketing.

That's the general consensus after a year and a half in the business. Never in their wildest dreams could the creators of Just Hoods by AWDis have thought that the brand would take off in the way that it has done. The rate that it is still growing at continues to surprise, but no one is complaining, least of all the printers and embroiderers who have discovered the advantages of using and selling such a comprehensive, broad ranging and well stocked collection.

Blue Max is a leading importer of schoolwear, leisurewear and sportswear to the UK.  The highest per centage of the portfolio is given over to schoolwear and with Stag Knitwear now firmly part of the business, Blue Max is proud to be one of the largest schoolwear stockists in the country.

Great brands

BTC activewear was one of the first and is still the largest Fruit of the Loom distributor in the UK and has also introduced many other popular brands to the industry over the years, including Gildan, Regatta, Stormtech and Dickies.

Gildan are one of world's largest manufacturers of basic T shirts, sweatshirts and sport shirts with more than 500 million garments and 750 million pairs of socks manufactured last year alone. 

Prestige Leisure is renowned for its unrivalled levels of customer support. And in the current financial climate, Prestige will be pushing the boundaries, concentrating on the following key areas:

• Massive inventories, including new products and online stock availability
• New computer system and website support services
• Sales and marketing support

With core business values fundamental to our success, Ralawise have always ensured good quality service, support and value, thus building up good relationships of trust with our customers.

Regatta, a family owned company based in Manchester, prides itself on providing value for money clothing for any outdoor environment. With an unparalleled reputation in the market and knowledge and skills learned from decades of steady growth, Regatta is uniquely positioned to supply the promotional and corporatewear industry with outdoor uniforms and apparel.

Today, RESULT offers a unique collection of classic and contemporary multifunctional jackets that will support you in any corporate or leisure activity.

Workwear and safety wear may not be the most exciting products to deal with but one thing is for sure, absolutely everyone needs them, hence they form such an important sector in our industry.

We're Russell. We thought we should introduce ourselves as you probably know us better by our brands: Jerzees Colours, Jerzees Schoolgear, Russell Workwear, the Russell Collection and Russell Solutions.

Some of us maybe need a jacket more than others, but we all need one at some point. It might be for someone who's in and out all day whatever the weather, or for staff and guests at a corporate event. Our jackets are designed to look good and work hard - as hard as their wearers do. Whatever the jacket, whatever the use, you'll find the one in our jacket collection.

Team Colours has been in the garment manufacturing business for almost a decade now and has been instrumental in the development of bespoke clothing for the promotions industry.

We know exactly how green ours is. Our paper mills are inspected, certified and uphold rigorous standards, enabling us to offer a range of paper products with the knowledge that we are helping to take care of mother earth, for a "brighter shade of green".