Winners of this years Promota Annual Awards were annouced at the recent awards dinner during the International Promota Show. Voted for by Promota members, the awards recognise the best suppliers and distributor partners.
The winners on the night were:
Supplier of the Year : Platinum - The Bizz Badge Company Ltd

Supplier of the Year : Gold - AT Promotions Ltd t/a Listawood

Supplier of the Year: Silver - Logobugs Plus

Supplier of the Year: Bronze - SPS (EU) Ltd

Distributor of the Year: Scotland & Ireland - Orb International KMS Ltd

Distributor of the Year: North - LSI Ltd

Distributor of the Year: Central - Heartlands Business Gifts Ltd

Distributor of the Year: South West & Wales - Blue Fish Business Promotions

Distributor of the Year: London & Eastern Region - Merchandise Mania

Distributor of the Year: South East - Hambleside Business Gift Solutions Ltd

Roger Saunders Award for outstanding service to the industry - Lloyd Simpson of LSI

Business Baubles launched to great acclaim in April 2003 at the Incentive World Exhibition, Earls Court. Since then they have attracted many high calibre clients including BBC, Bentley, BP, Coca-Cola and Disney and won some prestigious awards including most innovative product & entrepreneur of the industry. Tim Cadel, co-founder, commented ‘Business Baubles is now an established brand in the promotional merchandise industry, it has survived the start up years, the 2009 recession and is now poised for further growth in 2010 and beyond’

All wooden poster holders are now available with 20% discount until 31st March 2010 from Chalkboard UK.

We have received reports that the Swindon based leisurewear supplier UKL went into administration last Friday. We understand that the key assets have been purchased by Carapace, which is a company associated with Paul Persey owner of leading clothing wholesaler PenCarrie. It is understood that both UKL and Pen Carrie will continue as separate companies with Tony Lock of Pen Carrie and Tracy Richards of UKL as joint Managing Directors of the new UKL organisation.

For the past week Sourcing City News have been trying in vain to obtain an official statement relating to the state of Non Stop Promotions at the time of it’s demise. Unfortunately we have been advised that legally the liquidators are not able to make further comment at this stage. We understand that the report to creditors will not be issued until the liquidators have all the required information and that, once complete, it will be a private document for circulation to creditors only. Not being creditors, this of course means we will be unable to obtain answers to the specific questions we posed. We hear that questions were raised at the Creditors Meeting which need to be investigated by the liquidators before the final report to creditors will be issued. Rumour in the marketplace has resulted in unconfirmed claims that the company had debts in excess of £1m. A similar figures we also hear was the news for the PPAG creditors. Since being purchased by Dublin based PPAG, the group had posted sales of £9m+ in 2008, since this time both companies experienced significant decline. The sale price has not been disclosed to us.

The experience with Non Stop has occurred hot on the heals of the demise of CMC, and once again innocent suppliers have been hit hard in the pocket. How long will it be before a supplier can no longer overcome such loses? | When occurrences like this have arisen in the past, it has been extremely difficult for us to establish whether a company is in administration or indeed has moved into any of the following stages. It appears that no ‘official government body’ needs to be notified at each of the key stages? Unravelling how insolvency, administration and liquidation actually works in practice is no easy task. It appears that licensed insolvency practitioners can be employed by the company directors, and then also act as liquidators, with a duty to act in the best interest of the creditors. It also appears that key decisions can be taken without consultation of the creditors. Suppliers must feel powerless, and seem to have no choice other than to simply shrug their shoulders and accept whatever position is put in front of them. Sooner or later, these type of occurrences will take an innocent businesses down, & that just does not seem fair. | We as an industry, need to understand this entire process much better. Perhaps now is the time for our trade associations to add a valuable new member benefit. The employment of an expert ‘Insolvency Lawyer’ when any company in our industry fails, may just help ensure that our suppliers get some clear understanding of what is happening at key times & what legal rights they have to influence the course of the decisions made.

The attached report is written by Roger Martin-Fagg & distributed in association with Sourcing City. I have known Roger for numerous years & have regularly used the information in his reports to aid our own business decisions. Roger is a man worth listening to, in 2007 he predicted the fall-out from the credit crunch would leave the UK economy either in or very close to recession by 2009. Now he has very clear thoughts to share on what is likely to happen next, & when we may recover. The report is comprehensive & worth reading in full. Whilst everything may not be understood by us ‘laymen’, it is written for business leaders & I assure you that you will learn some things that you did not know. Roger’s views are not of the government or the mainstream & you may be surprised.

| March Report Summary: In the autumn of 2009 Roger made the case for a W shaped recovery. He argued that money supply growth in the Western Economies; even with the support of Quantitative Easing is not sufficient to finance money GDP growth at the 3-5% annual rate we need to maintain employment in Western Economies. It seems that others have caught up with this view and that Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, has been telling Westminster, that Europe, our largest export market, after a slight upturn is now stalled. Roger also explains why the economy is going to continue to struggle & forecasts that by the end of 2011, VAT will be 20%, basic rate will be up 2% and Government spending will be cut by at least 10%.

| Please click attachment to read full report.