FREE STUFF - Or Care to Help Us Test This?

As has already been detailed over here at Add A Splash Of Colour we are looking for some friendly citizens of Planet Earth to give our spanking new Sarah Smith Microfibre Screen Cloth a run round the track.

We have about one hundred test pieces of our new Microfibre Screen Cloth which we think is brilliant at keeping Laptop & desktop screens, LCD TVs, iPhones and all other manner of mobile and digital gadgetry free of smudges, fingerprints and other obscuring goo that clouds the view and frustrates our eyes!

No cleaning chemicals needed just a gentle rub with one of these beauties will keep your screen crystal clear and user friendly.

Volunteers to give one a whirl should apply with a "Yes please I'd love to test drive a Sarah Smith Microfibre Screen Cloth in a wacky pattern print" to info at sarah-smith dot co dot uk .

All we ask is that you send us a little feedback. Don't worry we will send you the questions (probably four of them we like to keep things simple!)

A huge THANK YOU in advance!

Three Thoughts On Poverty For Blog Action Day

I have been thinking about Blog Action Day as it approached wondering what I would write and I have been reading The Road To Wigan Pier by George Orwell to remind me what life was like here in the UK in the 1930s. Three lines of thought followed:

Poverty is a relative thing, a personal thing and something that can be eroded.

Poverty is a relative thing (if we put aside UN or Government definitions). For example this which refers to the Somerset in the UK, the place where my business Severn Delta operates.

In comparison to to the experience of many in the developing world or in comparison to conditions describe by Orwell in The Road To Wigan Pier, we could argue that poverty in the UK is a condition that would be welcomed by many living elsewhere.

But Poverty is also a personal thing and existing on scant resources is a harsh existence regardless of continent or country. That the conditions described by Orwell are now all but eradicated in the UK demonstrates that economic and social progress can raise the majority of a population out of poverty. Admittedly I write 70 years after Orwell and 2015 is but a tenth of that time frame away.

I am vocal about my commitment to manufacturing in the UK. I am proud of the fact that as I write I have 46 people employed on decent terms working in decent conditions in a town in the UK that is far from its most affluent corners.

That is not to say that I am against Globalisation. I firmly believe more global trade will create the momentum that will lift millions from poverty. BUT I firmly believe that to expect workers in developing countries to work in conditions and on economic terms that our forefathers fought hard to eradicate here is shameful. It is for this reason that when we do outsource production we do so from Fair Trade sources through the Fair Trade Foundation.

I think it is imperative that in these days of increasing economic difficulty that we do not slam our doors on the world. Raising people from Poverty here in the UK means creating employment on fair terms in sustainable businesses. We still have some vacancies here and while our business continues to grow we will continue to create new jobs. If I am brutally honest I could run this business with fewer people. I choose not to. But raising people from Poverty in the developing world means buying their goods, creating flows of capital and trade. Charity and aid have their place but trade and creating access to our markets without strings attached, but crucially on fair terms would do more.

Take some time and read more contributions to the debate here on The Blog Action Day 08 website.

We Can't Grow Our Way Out Of This Hole

18 months ago I wrote this post about one of our core theories of survival forged in the turmoil that saw the birth of Severn Delta.

Given the financial meltdown that is ripping through banking system it seems pertinent to reprise it: We, collectively, will not grow our way out of this hole.

So far out here in the real world where people get in their cars every morning, drive to work, take the kids to school, go shopping, eat dinner it feels like the early phoney war months of WWII. Not much has changed unless you have the misfortune to work for one of the increasing number of business failures .

But the bad tidings are piling up and political dithering is eroding market confidence. Consumers are pulling in their horns. Retail sales are down. The housing market is stagnant. New car registrations like new mortgages agreements are suddenly like rocking horse produce.

Behavior is slowly changing. Caution taking hold where exuberant confidence once ran free. Uncertain of our future prospects a survival instinct kicks in: we shrink to survive. We cut back and save our cash. Whether consumer or business this is the sensible course. Asset purchases can wait. We look for better value in consumables. We change vendors to offset rising prices or try to do without some things all together.

Collectively this means cumulative contraction. We will not grow our way out of this hole. We will turn round by shrinking to survive and growing again from a lower collective base.

In time those who have been fortunate enough not to lose their jobs will regain confidence and start to spend. House prices will eventually return to a level where their relationship to average earnings will make it viable for people to move. There will be pain along the way, no doubt there.

A while back I said here that I felt 2009 would hold the hardest yards. I haven't changed my view. Things for us right now at Severn Delta could not be better with a record sales and profit month under our belts in September 2008. But the underlying reason for this is the surging volumes in the value for money end of our portfolio over the past 10 weeks.

That gives a strong indication of where consumer confidence is heading. It is a trend that has only just started and has a long way to run. To be honest it may be a permanent sea change. But of that I will write more later.