Joking aside, the event was quite an organisational feat, taking PenCarrie and many of its major brands out into their customers' heartland.

It could be viewed as a gamble – especially in the current business climate. But it looks like it has paid off – certainly if feedback from customers is anything to go by.

"We did two testers last year," David told me. "One at Aston Villa and one in Ireland. It was a toe in the water to see what the general feeling was. We could sense that customers enjoyed it."

Hence the decision to embark on a five date, week-long tour, which stopped off at Edinburgh's Dynamic Earth, the City of Manchester Stadium, Northampton Rugby Club, Twickenham Stadium, and finally, Exeter Chiefs Rugby Ground.

All of the venues were individually researched – chosen as much for their wow factor as for their convenient locations. And at Exeter, there was an opportunity to visit PenCarrie's HQ.

It was a chance to see how customer orders are processed; to tour the warehouse with its tailor-made, state-of-the-art systems; and to appreciate the enormous volume of stock that is available for immediate despatch.

At each On Tour venue there was a sneak preview of the 256 new products for 2010 and there was a "PenCarrie Zone" manned by members of the Business Development, Marketing, Customer Services, and Warehouse teams.

David admits that people will have different slants on the tour. But it had a feelgood factor, he says, and 80 per cent of those who registered, attended.

"It's as good as we could have possibly hoped for," says David.

So what was the motivation behind the event?

"The decision was made right at the heart of the bottom of everyone's world dropping out about a year and a bit ago. Life was tough for everybody," David recalls.

"We decided then that you could sit here and do nothing, or do something positive. Instead of inviting people here, we would go to them. People could hopefully take half a day out of their busy schedules, come and see us and then get back to their work.

"We wanted to get PenCarrie out to the market place. We did that. Yesterday, in our heartland, we had 140 people register and we had 138 people through the door.

"My gut feeling is that we delivered the brands, the marketing services, the business development team, parts of the customer services team to our customers in a professional manner."

Roadshow visitors were able to acquaint themselves with the five new brands added to PenCarrie's existing portfolio of 50 - Dunlop Workwear, Lee Cooper Workwear, KooGa, Craghoppers and Lewis Print. PenCarrie will also be adding further brands mid year.

I ask David if there's too much choice now?

A lot of brands are consolidating this year, he says. "But now, we are also a little bit more cute about what we take. Also, one of the functions of our blank website is that you can switch off products if you want to. If you only want to show five polo shirts, you can switch off the rest. I totally understand why you would only want to show five polo shirts."

Aside from its huge stock-holding, PenCarrie's customer services department is a shining example to the rest of the industry. Is that your USP, I ask?

"It depends who you ask in the company," says David. "If you ask Tony Lock what's your USP, we're a fulfilment company. We just get the right box, with the right kit in it, to the right address at the right time. To our customer services manager, Andrea Charteris, we are, of course, a customer-focused organisation. I am in between the two. We are a fulfilment company with fantastic customer services, good marketing support and everything else.

"At this moment in time, I think stock holding is our biggest USP. You hear other people saying they've got a shed that can hold £10million worth of stock – we've had that here for three or four years and in a smaller shed – but it's not just about that.

"It's about proving the fact that when the phone rings – if our suppliers are keeping their end of the bargain, we can keep our end of the bargain."

PenCarrie's picking accuracy is unrivalled in the business, at 99.7%.

"Many people in our industry and in retailing in general can't understand how we do it," says David. "It all comes down to Paul (Persey). He is very robust when it comes to systems. And they have become better because of advances in IT. John Mallett, our warehouse manager, is not scared to embrace IT which is evident at every stage – from unloading and storage of goods to their despatch."

For example, warehouse staff wearing headphones are guided to picking points by a computerised voice system, nicknamed Doris. Checks and cross-checks are built-in to the system.

"Accuracy is so important because every time an error is made, it costs us. Accuracy is key and also, it's key to the customers."

Are customers loyal to PenCarrie, I wonder?

"The decoration market in the UK is a pretty fixed beast," says David. "On average there are probably 7000 to 8000 companies out there decorating garments. Until three years ago, we never had a team out on the road. Now we have a solid business development team of five out there. They shake the tree a little bit. They're not targeted on new business. They are out there to talk to existing customers and to give feedback to Andrea to react. They have also been able to permeate the market with any new services we offer like online ordering, showing customers how to access that."

PenCarrie introduced online ordering over a year ago. "A third of customers absolutely revel in it. Another third might say, I'm probably going to get around to that. Another third prefer to speak to someone in customer services. They want that contact. And that's all fine. The day that PenCarrie says you can only order online will be a dark day, because that is not what PenCarrie is all about.

"There has to be a balance. There are obvious benefits to online ordering. But if someone wants to speak to Andrea about their order and talk about their son's birthday and generally have a chat, great, because that's all part of what customer services do."

It's a crowded market place and I ask David if there is still room for all of the distributors?

"Bluntly, no," he tells me. "But we love competition! It keeps us grounded and focused to do better."

David admits that last year's global financial crash caused a few anxious moments in the boardroom – although the company's own finances and streamlined operations stood them in good stead.

"It was a question of working harder and keeping the faith," adds David.

"We have a saying – there's only one way, and that's the PenCarrie way. If that means we can't do it because there's a compromise in amongst that, we won't do it.

"When you use PenCarrie, you open the door to not only a good service with good products and everything being delivered on time, you also open the door to nice friendly people, good marketing tools and the whole package."

Full of inspiration for the year ahead

Tony Lock, PenCarrie's managing director, comments: "PenCarrie On Tour was developed so that we could bring PenCarrie closer to customers' doorsteps, showcasing at a local level all our new for 2010 products, including those from five new brands. We were delighted to see so many customers, new and established, at the various events; and we are grateful to the many brands who supported the series so wholeheartedly. We were also very pleased that Gordon Glenister of the BPMA and online marketing expert Matt Davidson of Goldladder were able to join us throughout, giving free business advice to visitors on a one-to-one basis. The atmosphere at all venues was generally 'buzzing' and there were excellent exchanges with customers about the products, the marketing tools and the support that PenCarrie offers at an individual level, as well as discussing business in general. Initial feedback indicates that many people came away from the events full of fresh inspiration for the year ahead."

PENCARRIE TIMELINE

• PenCarrie founded by Paul Persey. The customer services team were his wife Caroline (known as Carrie), Caroline’s sister Penny (Pen) and Andrea Charteris (whom many may remember as Andrea Reynolds, before her marriage).
• Move to larger premises with 17,000 sq ft of space.
• PenCarrie is the first distributor to publish a printed catalogue. The 2010 PenCarrie brochure has 312 pages featuring more than 1,600 products from over 50 brands.
• Move to 42,000 sq ft building, still in vicinity of Exeter and with easy access to M5.
• End December – move to present location just off J30 of the M5 at Exeter. Warehouse capacity steadily increases; stock levels are kept high.
• In-house marketing department set up.
• In-house IT department established to develop internal systems and provide day-to-day troubleshooting support.
• 2001  First stage of integrated computerised systems for customer services and warehouse.
• PenCarrie website launched. Warehouse capacity reaches 110,000 sq ft.
• PenCarrie blank website (which customers can incorporate into their own) is launched.
• Stock holding is increased to over £10 million in value (and this level of stock is maintained to this day).
• The ebrochure builder is launched (a free-to-customers business tool available through the website).
• New managing director, Tony Lock, is appointed and Paul Persey becomes Executive Chairman.
• New Business Development manager Graham Burgess joins the company.
• On-line ordering is launched. In the warehouse, random storage is introduced, maximising space; and a new voice picking system is introduced, increasing pick rate and accuracy. The marketing team set up two ‘Sneak Previews’ in Birmingham and Ireland for showcasing new products for 2009.
• Logo Decorator – another free service to customers using the website – is launched. Later, in November, based on the success of the Sneak Previews in 2008, the PenCarrie On Tour series of five much-expanded events takes place across the UK (see main article and comment by Tony Lock in separate panel).

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