GratViews
Murray Hudson's blog from Gratnells
Is there a doctor in the house?
Apr 24th
Although we don’t sell our school range direct to teachers online, we now sell a range of our medical products direct to hospitals. We have just launched Gratnellsmedical.com which offers our most popular trolley sets available to buy direct online.
The website will offer 10% discounts on selected products from the best-selling Classic range of trolleys, as well as the new Compact range and is the first ‘buy off the page’ site that Gratnells has created.
Avery good idea
Mar 28th
We are excited to have teamed up with leading label manufacturer Avery and classroom resource website Twinkl to supply brand new tray labets to fit Gratnells trays. From April all Gratnells orders will come with a customised sheet of Avery tray labels. Teachers can then go online and download and print free label template designs from twinkl. This will make it really easy for teachers to have attractively labelled trays. And the stickers have ‘smart’ glue which peels off when needed with no sticky residue.
Twinkl is an online resource centre created just for those teaching in the early years and Key Stage One
Education show talk brings a tear to the eye
Mar 20th
Last week we were kept busy at the Education Show in Brimingham. Gratnells had our stand there as usual mainly showcasing our Junior storage range, and we also had Gratnells Educational Consultant and Learning Rooms partner, Roger Cole, giving a talk on ‘Teaching and Learning for the Next Decade’. Roger is an inspiring speaker and is passionate about how we should educate children. His talk had an enthusisatic reception and even reduced one young teacher to tears as she was so moved.
You can see a copy of the slideshow from Roger’s presentation here.
Education Show 2012
Mar 14th
This week we’re at The Education Show in the NEC in Birmingham. If you’re going to be there, be sure and drop by and say hello. We’re on stand H10 which is just to your right at the main entrance. We’re also hosting a talk with Roger Cole at 2pm on Thursday. You can find full details of the talk here and the show here.
Gratnells trays storm Audi showrooms in Holland.
Feb 21st
Cars and trays (and furniture!)
Gratnells trays have been selected as the tray of choice for the children’s play areas in a number of VW/Audi showrooms in Holland. With furniture designed by the respected educational furniture manufacturer Klassehout, two pieces were created to keep children happy while Mum and Dad bought the latest car. Klassehout design creative and flexible furniture for primary schools. All their furniture is manufactured according to current standards and safety with necessary certification.
Prof Sykes agrees to present STOY awards.
Feb 13th
Your chance to meet Kathy in person
Once again Professor Kathy Sykes has agreed to hand over the Gratnells Science Technician of the Year Awards again this year in person. Kathy will be joining the winners at the Science Learning Centre HQ at York University on the 5th on July 2012. The winners will be announced shortly.
Tailor made inserts
Feb 7th
We are very pleased with our latest foam insert – a fully customisable insert. The foam is partially-cut in a grid of small squares – so by pulling out the right combination of squares you can make any insert shape that you need. These inserts are ideal for low volume specialist scientific or medical equipment – or indeed any low volume products that need storing securely.
If you would like a sample of this new insert just drop me an email
Everything there is to know
Feb 7th
After much blood, sweat and tears we have completed our Gratnells International Brochure. It was primarily designed for our overseas customers, but it’s just as relevant for our UK partners too. It clearly demonstrates our complete product range and potential applications for third parties, and has a full colour chart and lots of technical information too. There’s even a glossy pull-out poster for that space above your desk that needs brightening up!
If you’re interested in having a look at what we do you can download a pdf, or see a flicky version online. I’ll even post you a copy if you email me your details.
Toyfair 2012
Feb 7th
The Nurnberg Toyfair is always one of the highlights of the ‘selling-season’ and this year it started a day earlier than normal. Instead of kicking-off on the first Thursday in February the organizers moved the fair to the last Wednesday in January. If they hoped to get more people through the door on that first day they would have been sorely disappointed. Most of the halls were significantly less busy than normal but it gave myself and Spencer Randon, our Director of International Sales a good opportunity to see as many people as possible.
Smiles all round
The news across the market was decidedly mixed. Andreas and Yvonne from Henbea, Spain recounted woes of all the Spanish Education Government contracts being cancelled in 2011 making trading difficult. However, there was more positive news from Germany and Poland where a big merger of two of the biggest players is sure to affect the market . It may be strange to travel to Germany to pick up UK news but Nurnberg is always a good mixing pot for of the latest comings and goings of the UK market. Probably the biggest news was Craig Carter formerly of Agenta, Findel and TTS had set up his own business to source products. It’s called Craig Carter Concepts and a website would be appearing shortly. Thanks as ever to companies showing our trays on their stands and this year the box of chocolates goes to Dusyma and Neinhuis for supporting us among others. A positive year all round.
Dusyma
Neinhuis
Train spotting
Feb 7th
Model Train collectors need to store their precious models – ergo they could put them in a Gratnells tray. That was the rationale behind our thinking when we set off for the Model Train hall at the Nurnberg Toyfair 2012. Armed with a special leaflet extolling the virtue of our new customizable foam insert surely the millions will come rolling in. Our concept was greeted with ‘cautious enthusiasm’. I will let you know how we get on! Why not have a quick look at the Rail packaging 1 A3.
