We hope you all enjoyed the festive break – and welcome to our first blog of 2023!

As the new year gets underway, we’ve been talking to some of our customers about their business plans and expectations for the next 12 months. Unsurprisingly, most are hoping for a more stable economic environment where it’s easier to look ahead and make sensible financial decisions. Unfortunately, we have very little control over the global economy – but we may be able to assist your business in other areas. For example, helping to improve operational efficiency, cutting cost, and ensuring maximum value from every transaction.

These are some of the key themes that we dialled into our thinking during the last quarter of 2022 – both for our own business as part of the AS 9120 certification cycle, as well as for our approach to customer management. The upshot is a big package of investment into the business this year that will further streamline our operations and enhance the customer experience. The focus is on expanding our capabilities and optimising efficiency so that we can deliver even more value for our customers.

What’s more, we’re offering free delivery on all January orders of less than 20kg!

Looking ahead, we’re undertaking a major upgrade of our data processing and storage systems with smart new software to better deal with quote handling and the digital archiving of sales orders. In simple terms, the upgrade means you’ll benefit from faster turnaround times on enquiries, and easier, more secure access to older sales orders, which will be retrievable in just a few clicks. All backed by the usual highly professional, uniquely personal service, of course!

Another important area of focus is stock management, and we’re reviewing our policies to make sure they align more closely with evolving customer needs. By closely monitoring sales enquiries and ordering trends, and flexing our global network of trusted partners, we can ensure that you’ll always be able to access the premium metals, alloys and components you need, exactly when you need them.

We’ll keep you updated with progress on these initiatives in future blogs, and let you know about other improvements we’ll be making during the year as they’re introduced. Next month’s blog takes a slightly different tack and is the first in a series of Technical Releases, designed to provide a practical guide to our range of high specification products. As usual, we’ll let you know when it’s posted.

In the meantime, we wish you all the best for 2023 and hope you’ll be able to take advantage of our free delivery offer on all orders of less than 20kg placed in January – please get in touch now to discuss your requirements! Until next month…