Spring 2013 February 1st saw the return of the Long Service Dinner where staff who are celebrated 10, 20, 30 or 40 years with the company (in 2012) were invited to a special event. After a bite to eat at the Kettering Park Hotel all guests were presented with a gift as a sign of the company’s appreciation for their hard work and dedication over the years. LONG SERVICE DINNER Above L-R: Derek Wilson (10 Years), John McFarlane (10 Years), Elaine Parker (10 Years), Julie Noble (10 Years), Thomas Reid (10 Years) and Chris Lacey (10 Years). Above L-R: Vincent Owen (10 Years), Lee Russell (10 Years), Emma Griffiths (10 Years), Janet Hudson (10 Years), Neville Reed (10 Years) and Kevin Clarke (10 Years). Above L-R: George Bailey (10 Years), Jon Kemp (10 Years) Chris Farr (10 Years), Sandra Coles (20 Years), Gordon Parker (20 Years) and Mike Bacon (20 Years). Lenny Edwards (10 Years) and Adrian Mabbutt (20 Years) also celebrated in 2012, but were unable to attend the event. Congratulations to you all!
Transcript
Spring 2013
February 1st saw the return of the Long Service Dinner where staff who are celebrated 10, 20, 30 or 40 years with the company (in 2012) were invited to a special event. After a bite to eat at the Kettering Park Hotel all guests were presented with a
gift as a sign of the company’s appreciation for their hard work and dedication over the years.
LONG SERVICE DINNER
Above L-R: Derek Wilson (10 Years), John McFarlane (10 Years), Elaine Parker (10 Years), Julie Noble (10 Years), Thomas Reid (10 Years) and Chris Lacey (10 Years).
Above L-R: Vincent Owen (10 Years), Lee Russell (10 Years), Emma Griffiths (10 Years), Janet Hudson (10 Years), Neville Reed (10 Years) and Kevin Clarke (10 Years).
Above L-R: George Bailey (10 Years), Jon Kemp (10 Years) Chris Farr (10 Years), Sandra Coles (20 Years), Gordon Parker (20 Years) and Mike Bacon (20 Years). Lenny Edwards (10 Years) and Adrian Mabbutt (20 Years) also celebrated in 2012, but were
unable to attend the event.
Congratulations to you all!
NEWS IN BRIEF NEW ARRIVALS
Nick Godfrey and his girlfriend Lucie are pleased to
welcome their second daughter, Libby Mae into the world. Born 24th October at 12.18 and weighing 7lbs 8oz.
Aimie Llewellyn and her boyfriend Fraser have had a
little boy. Jack Griffin was born 18th December at
4.11pm weighing 9lbs 4oz. Sam Wilson and his wife
Leanne have had a little boy! Harley Jay was born on 9th January at 2.43am weighing
8lbs and 13oz. Finally, Pawel Nowakowski and wife Dominika had the
best New Year’s gift with the arrival of Wojciech. Born 1st January at 7.30am and two weeks early, weighing just
over 5lbs.
Congratulations to you all!
Directors’ Message
Our Hitchin Depot has been named Number 1 in the Palletforce league table for January 2013.
This is no easy feat as not only are we tackling the London postcodes but have come first out of 90 Palletforce Depots in the table.
Having gone live in March 2011, our Hitchin depot covered the majority of the N, W, and SW postcodes for the Palletforce Network. In 2012 we also gained every Luton postcode and started to see the volumes increase dramatically.
Each Palletforce depot is ranked by its performance and a league table is produced. Over the last three months, we have seen Knights of Old gradually climb to its most recent position of number one for the month of January. The success is due to a combined effort of all our Hitchin staff. Without the hard work from our drivers and our transport team, this improved performance would not have been possible. Keep up the good work and congratulations to you all!
The KOO Webshop is now open for business! We have always been proud of our brand and we know that you and the general public also have an interest in Knights of Old branded items, so we have decided to launch www.KOOshop.co.uk. We are selling only a small selection of goods to begin with, but they include mugs, office accessories, clothing and brollies. Please spread the word to your friends and family and if successful we will be adding more products over the next year. Another exciting development is our progress with our driver CPC Training. As you will know, by 2014 all drivers must have completed 35 hours training and Driver Trainer Lee Russell is working hard to ensure that all drivers are qualified ready for the deadline.
If you have any questions regarding driver CPC please contact Chris Farr, HR or Lee Russell. Finally, November saw the company win Business of the Year in the Northamptonshire Business Excellence Awards. This is something we are hugely proud of. Winning these awards indicates to our peers and customers what we have achieved and how we continue to grow. Without your hard work and commitment we would not be able to gain such accolades. Thank you all
Hitchin Named No.1 Palletforce Depot in National League Table
NEWS IN BRIEF ALPINE DELIVERIES!
Over Christmas we went above and beyond for our
valued client, Belmont Press. They were
struggling with a delivery they needed to make in
time for the opening of a new restaurant in the Alps
on Christmas Eve, for which they had printed
new menus.
James ‘IT’ Burns and IDT’s Adam Draper came to the
rescue by taking the parcel with them to France (where they were going on
holiday) and skied them directly to the door of the restaurant on time for the opening. The Alpine dash
took them over four hours and he battled
mountainous and snowy conditions! Thank you
both for your commitment and dedication to
maintaining the high Knights of Old customer
service levels!
Metaltek-Knights of Old Racing Team
Training & Qualifications
This year we are excited to announce that we will be headline sponsor of the cycling team that we joined forces with last year. The team will be called Metaltek-Knights of Old and will be competing in the prestigious national Halfords Tour Series, as well as the Premier Calendar, Elite Circuit Series and other races across Europe.
Last year the team finished 3rd overall in the British Cycling Team rankings and we are hoping to achieve the same if not better this year.
As well as increasing our profile externally, we are still very passionate about what the team can do for us, and we made great headway with the internal workshops that covered Road Safety, Health, Nutrition and Fitness. The feedback from the workshops has been positive but we recognise that we need to do more to help our staff. Therefore we have added to the programme the following:
Staff across all sites will get the chance to sit in one of the staff workshops to learn about road
safety, health, nutrition and fitness. (we will hold them at Northampton and Hitchin next
All staff can speak one on one with the course leader to discuss a fitness and/or healthy eating plan
All staff will receive a discount at a local bike shop (details to follow)
All staff will be able to bring their bikes into work for a free service on regular dates throughout the year (dates to be published shortly)
Regular information will be circulated about races and team standings so that you can really get behind the team and show your support by attending a race event
More information will be circulated shortly and we hope that the team continues with its success from last year and that you continue seeing the benefits from this unique partnership.
Training Dates We are delighted to announce that we have joined forces with the Northamptonshire Chamber of Commerce once again in order to offer a wide variety of internal training courses. The courses and dates are: Customer Service on the Telephone
(11th March) Business Writing (15th April) Presentation Skills (13th May) Managing your Workload (10th June) Self Development (1st July) How to handle stress positively (12th
August) Motivating the team (9th September) If you or any of your team would like to attend these courses please contact Rebecca Emerson in HR to get your space booked.
LGV Qualifications
Congratulations to Ben Langford, Daniel Weeks, Peter Jakeways and Malcolm Fuins who have all successfully passed their Class 1 driving assessments. All four have worked for the company as Class 2 drivers for a number of years.
CPC Congratulations to both Technical Director, Kelvin Gingell and Customer Services Manager, Magda Dickert who have both
gained their CPC qualification. Kelvin now has the International CPC in Road Haulage, and Magda is the first to complete and gain the new style combined National and International CPC qualification.
Starting Off
Finally, congratulations are in order to Tiffany Barker, Customer Services Administrator, who has passed her Level 3 NVQ in Business & Administration. This final level of the course was attained by passing two exams and achieving a high score in her portfolio. Tiffany was presented with her certificate by Cobblers Manager, Aidy Boothroyd. Starting Off is a recruitment and training specialist based in Northampton that helps local companies train Graduates and Apprentices in a variety of courses.
Aidy Boothroyd presenting Tiffany with her certificate
THANK YOU VINCE A big thank you to Vince
Sterling who recently went above and beyond.
His truck was impacted by a car driver who was very shook
up by the incident. Vince calmed him down, ensured
everyone was safe, contacted the third party’s family and even helped to repair his
vehicle to make it roadworthy again. The third party’s father
has called us to say a big thank you to Vince and
Knights of Old for looking after his son.
Well Done Vince!
This newsletter has been printed on recycled paper.
Compliance Update
New Starters (October 2012—January 2013)
Since September 2012 we have taken on an additional 33 new staff members across all sites and departments. Most are Drivers or Warehouse Operatives which demonstrates the increase in work the company has seen over the last few months. Hitchin Drivers: Ian Hudson, Simon Cole, Jeffrey Drew, Karl Bridgeman, Martin Smith, Mark Rutherford and Adrian Whitfield have all joined our driving team at our Hitchin Depot. Hitchin Warehouse: Edward Rogers, Steven Aydal and Patrick Hornibrook have all joined the Hitchin team as Warehouse Operatives. Northampton Drivers/Warehouse: Philip West, Dean Summerly, Robert Pearce, Brian Beard, David Cooke, Peter Coatsworth, Warren Dean, Spencer Crawford, Richard Edwards and Andrew Kinch have all joined as 7.5 T or Class 2 Drivers. Ian Watkins and Keith Jones have joined the Northampton Sameday team as Van Drivers. Alex Sinin joined the company in October as a Warehouse Operative. Kettering /Colchester Drivers: Nathan Heycock is Kettering’s latest Class 1 Pool Driver and Tony Colwell has joined the Colchester team as a Class 1 driver operating from Frating Green. Kettering Operations/Packing: Dominic Williams (Warehouse Admin), Konrad Kajda (Warehouse Operative), Dave Clasby (Export Packing), Katie
Fowles (Transport Distribution Operator), Alexander Lee (Customer Service Apprentice) and Ashley Barrs (Transport Manager) have all joined the operations at the Kettering depot. Commercial Team: Finally we see Jack Ward join the sales team as Sales Apprentice based in Northampton and Steven Smyth joined KOO as Business Development Director. Steven Smyth, Business Development Director: Steven joins us from DHL Supply Chain which is the contract logistics division. Steven has over twenty years experience in logistics, in operational and consultancy roles in the Healthcare, Retail, Consumer, Automotive and Industrial sectors. In his role as Business Development Director Steven will develop market strategies and identify and develop new business opportunities resulting in more profitable business for Knights of Old in the UK and Europe.
Welcome to you all!
Knights of Old is pleased to announce that is has retained its Bronze accreditation for the FORS Transport scheme and has gained the TAPA accreditation for the Kettering site.
FORS is a government based accreditation body that was set up by London Transport and introduced by the Mayor of London to promote safe modes of transport and travel within the London Boroughs. We have now got the accreditation for Kettering, Northampton and Hitchin sites and we are hoping to upgrade to Silver shortly.
TAPA is the Transported Asset Protection Association and we have been given this accreditation which demonstrates our responsibility towards site security, procedure and planning for safe and secure transportation and protection of customer goods whilst in our possession. A fundamental TAPA objective is to affect positive change in the security practices of the freight transportation and insurance communities. Major freight service providers are moving towards TAPA recognised security standards and they are seeing the benefits and inherent value of
doing so. Thank you to all were involved in the audit process and of course, all who
continue to follow our procedures and help us operate efficiently and safely.
