We have a product to match any promotional event and the expertise to help fulfil our customers, client's requirements.Recently we have experienced a huge growth in the Awards and Trophy market. Though the shape of awards comes in and out of fashion the most popular are still the cost effective offerings which are usually plain with no frills.

Our Optical Crystal Trophy Blocks have been our most consistent best seller from our range of awards for the last four years. Now available in three sizes and in Jade Green and Optical Crystal we plan to expand the range by offering several new colours.

Though the process of crystal and glass manufacturing has remained pretty much the same for many years, the current market shift we have seen which will impact the availability of many of the commonly used products, is the phasing out of lead crystal items. This is largely due to the North American market demanding lead free crystal due to the risk of cross contamination into liquids.

Many crystal manufacturers have already crossed over to using the oxide borosilicate as an alternative to lead oxide. This new oxide makes the crystal much harder and when pure quality is achieved it becomes ‘Optic Crystal'. The down side of this for crystal decorators is that it renders many personalisation methods unusable due to poor results.

To compound the death of lead crystal, due to the current economic climate many factories especially in Eastern Europe have closed down. With the cost of rebuilding the furnaces running into several hundreds of thousands of pounds it is very unlikely these factories will ever re-open.

We recently did a customer survey on the current state of the promotions Industry and the frustration most commonly expressed by the cross section of distributors surveyed was the validity of the vast selection of eco friendly, green products available on the market.

After 30 years in the glass industry ourselves with experience passed down to our team through over a century or glass making on Wearside, we can confirm that it costs far more to recycle glass into another form of glass than it does to create glass from scratch. This is simply down to the cost of collection and the extra energy required to ‘break down' unwanted contaminants.

Ask yourself. Why is it more expensive? How does this help the planet?

It is a fantastic substance to recycle which is why bottle banks appeared alongside paper banks in the Eighties. It is so popular because it can be used for so many things most popularly used as aggregate for ground works though we use it as an additive to our personalisation.

After being lucky enough to travel to some remote parts of our planet and seeing the respect and dependence some cultures show Mother Nature, it's disappointing to see our industry exploiting the protection of our environment.

From a personalisation point of view over the last couple of years the biggest change we have seen as a supplier of trophies and awards is the requirement for individual personalisation.

Previously you would tend to just get the same artwork for example company logo or event across all of the products ordered. Industry feedback tells us how much more it means to the recipient to see their name on the award. In the current economic climate where bonuses may no longer be available, recognition by way of an individually personalised gift is the perfect way to ensure staff morale remains high. It ensures the recipient feels needed and valued. After fine-tuning our very own personalisation method of ‘inverted engraving' over the last 29 years, we can confidently say we can hit the finest detail of any artwork. Due to the restrictions of traditional engraving with fine lines and laser engraving with unwanted chipping our method is head and shoulders above all others. With end users demanding exact recreation of logos to fit in with strict corporate branding guidelines our distributor partners know we never disappoint.

For more information call 0191 584 6000, email sales@dunelm-glass.co.uk or visit www.dunelm-glass.co.uk

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