harrisongreen

Build ‘Useful’ Things With Your Office Supplies

2011-06-06T17:05:00.002+01:00

Amusing ideas for office products!

How Wonderful are Post It Notes?

2010-10-29T10:45:00.002+01:00

Bic Pens ..... Ever Wondered How They Do IT?

2010-10-28T15:48:00.004+01:00

Something A Little Different! Spin The Pen

2010-03-09T16:32:00.002Z

We came across this very clever fella playing with Pentels Superb Hyper Pen......

Try this next time you are struggling to stay awake in a meeting!

Paper Price Inflation 2010

2010-02-19T15:44:00.003Z

We've had quite a few years of relative stability in the price of copier paper...... but sadly that seems to be coming to an end!

On of our policies at harrisongreen is to try and keep a stability of brand of paper, and to try and avoid the very cheapest 'white box' products which can be very inconsistent as we can't always be sure of exactly what is inside the box!

Over recent months this has been difficult to do as paper has been increasingly difficult to source consistently. We are now experiencing the industry wide supply issues that are affecting the whole paper market here in the UK.

Its worth just explaining a number of factors that are coming together now to cause these difficulties;

UK Paper Market Update

To understand the reasons why this is happening we have to look at the UK paper market as a whole and identify the key reasons for this:-

1. Sell price in the UK by paper mills to merchants is the lowest throughout Europe

2. Scottish paper mill closed down last year and all production moved to Brazil

3. Brazil production now sold into North and south American markets as opposed to UK

4. New Portuguese paper mill opened last year, but only running at around 75% capacity

5. Finnish dockers on stike blocking ports in finland

6. Swedish dockers about to go on strike (not confirmed but highly likely) – both affecting supply

7. Euro against the pound

8. Price of pulp up 27% in the last 3 months

In short the paper mills would rather sell to Europe and other markets before the UK, therefore restricting supply in order to force prices up. Which is happening now!!!

So whilst we work as hard as we can to keep paper prices steady, inevitably we will need to increase over the coming weeks and months....... but rest assured that we will only apply increases which are absolutely necessary.

Customer Survey

2010-02-18T18:26:00.002Z

From time to time its useful to know just how we are doing!

We pride ourselves on great service....... but we would like your feedback on how we can improve....

Please take 2 minutes ( thats all it will take) to give us a little feedback here Click Here For Online Survey

Brother HL5340D Printer Offer

2010-02-10T11:22:00.004Z

This month we have this fantastic Brother HL5340D Printer on offer!

Features

Increase productivity with this 30 pages per minute printer
Duplex printing feature saves paper and costs
Optional high yield toner available offering cost effective printing

Description

The new HL-5340D delivers high quality printed documents efficiently. With the built-in automatic duplex printing feature you can print both sides of the paper, which can contribute to reducing business costs and your carbon footprint.

Only £165.00!

A Very Happy New Year!

2010-01-12T18:12:00.003Z

First Off A very Happy New Year to all our valued customers , suppliers and friends........

New Year Resolutions have often been forgotten by now, but instead i'm just starting on one of mine! That resolution is to keep our blog udated much more frequently! Time will tell!

We have a number of new ideas and initiatives on the way in 2010, and some fantastic new product ranges for you.

The first of our new ideas is to provide a fully online 'flickable' digital catalogue.

As you may know our backup Support Catalogue extends to nearly 900 pages and over 20,000 products.... its big and takes a whole load of paper and earths resources to produce. So in 2010 we have halved quantities of our hard copy catalogue and will be using the online version in its place.

Theres lots of advantages to the online catalogue, not only for the environment but it also allows us to easily keep up to date when our lovely manufacturers change prices!

When you raise an order through the digicatalogue, you generate an email to us automatically ( but bear in mind if you have agreed contract pricing in place then your actual prices may be lower than the digicatalogue prices)

Click Here to go to our online digital catalogue!

Cuddly Toys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-11-12T12:00:00.003Z

Thursday 12th November......

We have some animals in the office and we are looking for people to adopt them!

Can you give one a home?

Operators Chair Offers November 2009

2009-11-06T11:04:00.004Z

We have some fantastic operators chair offers this month!

Click here to see them

Smoke and Mirrors of Pricing

2009-09-17T17:09:00.002+01:00

We obviously speak to a lot of clients, existing and potential, during the course of our working week. There are two common competitors that we regularly analyse against as part of our 'Purchasing Health Checks', and we consistently find some quite horrific pricing and trading policies!

Our friends at Lyreco stand out ......... First of all we regularly find that they quote prices that are way below the cost price of even manufacturing the items! Why is that we wonder?

Well.... it's plain to see that these items are very regularly used items that people will be buying regularly - the kind of items that they will know the prices of! The methodology is that by selling these very regularly used items as 'loss leaders'they will attract business. All we ask is that people sit back and think about it....... Why would you sell items at or below the cost price?

Well we regularly find the reasons why!

Perhaps its because it hides the fact that their RRP's ( i.e. products that attract a standard across the board discount are consistently well above manufacturers recommended prices ! Just recently we have had access to an analysis of 800 Lyreco items to compare the retails to our own...... and we found........ buying one of everything at harrisongreen retails cost £21819. Buying the same quantity at Lyreco retails cost £31091..... a big difference really! So in other words a customer receiving a 30% discount may be paying more than we would charge BEFORE discount!

An example of this recently was where a client was tempted away by a saving of 25p a ream on their copier paper....... however....... a Hewlett Packard toner cartridge they regularly buy was priced at £133, against our price of £71.50. Or put another way..... unless thet bought more than 246 reams of copier paper, the purchase of just one of those HP cartridges would mean they spent more!

This approach to pricing is what we call smoke and mirrors! Its just an illusion!

Twitter .... Its All The Rage.......

2009-06-26T12:33:00.002+01:00

Well this whole social networking thing is really taking off...... Twitter is suddenly becoming the thing to use!

You can follow us at www.twitter.com/harrisongreen

Follow us for regular Twitter only promotions and offers!

Prize Winners!

2009-06-26T12:09:00.010+01:00

Here's a picture of a very happy Mark West of Bedfordshire and Luton Community Foundation. Mark was presented with a Phillips DVD player We ran a Referral promotion a few months ago...... just refer someone else to us, and we put your name into the hat ( well actually it was an empty copier paper box!) and we drew out the winner which was Mark!

Another winner of a Phillips DVD player was Emma Chapman of Welland Enterprise.

harrisongreen were exhibiting at the B2B Event in Grantham. This trade event was organised by SKDC to promote and help develop local trade. With a good number of exhibitors attending it was a worthwhile event. We ran a business card draw..... first out of the hat (copier box) was Emma.

Emma will be using the DVD player at Welland Enterprise offices where it will be a very useful addition to their meeting room equipment

Executive Chairs - Leather!

2009-05-01T14:25:00.002+01:00

Well the year is flying by soooo fast! This month we have just a few of these great leather executive Chairs left........ ideal for office and home office use! Great black leather chair with a quality heavy duty chrome base.

The arms are chrome steel, with a pad for additional comfort. The chair also has a reclining action and is adjustable for body weight.

We only have a few left now - they've gone pretty well...... Call us now if you'd like one. Only £49.99

Tash for Cash!

2009-02-23T16:11:00.009Z

As many people know, Bob Taylor and Lee Alexander have been raising money for the Sue Ryder Care Charity.

The Peterborough branch of Sue Ryder ran the Tash for Cash campaign in January....... object being that the guys went for the whole of January to see who could gain the most impressive moustache!

The guys have taken a lot of stick by family, friends and colleagues yet they have stuck to their guns and battled through, leaving the razor unused and growing the best tash they possibly can.

We are all very proud of Bob and Lee for taking part and have been astounded by their dedication to the cause. As well as raising money and awareness for Sue Ryder Care - Thorpe Hall Hospice, these chaps have brought back in fashion everyone's favourite; the tash!

The guys raised over £150 to the cause!

Heres their efforts! Lee has the slightly ginger 'Gringo' look, whilst Bob is sporting the very greying almost invisible look!

A Happy New Year!

2009-01-08T16:13:00.005Z

First Of All A Very Happy New Year!

Joe Stride of GExpro in Guildford has certainly had a very nice start to his new year as he was winner of our Prize Draw on our Christmas Battleships promotional day! We love it when our lucky customers really appreciate their prizes.

Naturally like everyone we really hope that 2009 will be better than everyone fears. All businesses really need to control their costs at these times, and we can really help with that.

We have many years experience of office products, and can offer really useful advice about how you can save costs.

Our Cost Reduction Audit is a very useful thing to do. We know from our experience many areas where our clients can make direct and indirect savings. One of our specialists can visit you and look at all areas of your purchasing, including office supplies, printer consumables, packaging, print and many others.

We will produce a summary for you and show you some real areas of savings. We often surprise our customers at just what kind of savings we may well be able to find you!

Why not give us a call and let us do our work? You really have nothing to lose!

Posture Perfect Seating Programme

2008-12-04T16:57:00.003Z

harrisongreen are really pleased to launch the unique Posture Perfect Seating Programme.

We provide a FREE seating consultation at your premises, and offer advice upon solutions to meet specific staff seating related problems. We will recommend a suitable chair based upon the individual needs. You can then try that chair at your workplace FREE for a week to ensure its right for you! The Posture Perfect Seating Program includes seating options from petite to tall, skinny to not so skinny! This unique program allows you to see feel and try your recommended chair for a week in your premises with no obligations.

Research shows that up to 80% of the population suffer some sort of back pain in our working lives. Are you one of the 80%? Commonly the cause is related to discs in the back being compressed. Maintaining a seated position combined with leaning forward increases the compression of the discs and the risk of back pain. Bad seating has been shown to speed up disc degeneration. As more people become chair bound and less active, (75% of the working population), abdominal and trunk muscles slacken, further increasing the instability of the spine and the risk of back pain. Medical requirements for seating; A tilting seat which allows for a change of position whilst the spine continues to be fully supported in a well-formed supportive back rest. This back needs to be adjustable so it can be fixed at the ideal height and angle for any shape or size of user. The seat pad should be shaped such that the body is held securely in a relaxed position (avoiding slipping forward). In order to support any length of thigh satisfactorily the seat pad also needs to have the option of being adjustable in depth. Armrests have also been found to reduce pressure on the discs, but they need to be available in a variety of heights and shapes. User Requirements; As work stations are frequently shared by different members of staff, it is important that the chair is easily adjustable to a variety of preferred working positions. By addressing bad seating issues, we can increase productivity by contributing to a healthier, happier working environment, keeping our clients comfortable, and sometimes solving unappreciated problems! Call us for your survey today? No Obligation!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Promotional Day - Ipod Shuffle winner!

2008-11-24T12:07:00.003Z

Regular customers will know that we regularly hold promotional 'Blitz' days when we collar our manufacturers and supply partners for additional offers, gifts and prizes.

We always try and ensure that all customers placing orders on the day get some kind of prize, sometimes just a small token prize - sometimes the prizes can be quite valuable!

Last week we had a really great day and managed to spread a little happiness amongst our customers in these difficult times - it seems so many people are being hit by the economy's troubles! So we hoped to brighten up one customers day by giving away an Ipod Shuffle in a draw on the day for everyone who had placed an order

The prize Draw was won by local Grantham Customer GWP, Stuart Timms is pictured below accepting the Ipod on behalf of GWP from our very own Bob Taylor.

Christmas Cards! Have you ordered your company cards yet!?

2008-11-05T14:48:00.006Z

Well.......... Jo here loves Christmas, and I'm sure if you ask her she will probably be able to tell you exactly how many days to go!

All I know is it will be here all too soon!

We have always supplied Christmas cards, but this year we have worked with our supply partners to produce a fantastic new web site so that you can view and order your cards online! Its really easy to use and has already proved popular!

Click here to visit the web site now!

Heres a small selection of the cards available!
Take a look at the Christmas Card site...... and don't forget...... they are Charity cards too!

Welcome to the harrisongreen blog

2008-10-20T12:19:00.005+01:00

Welcome!

This blog is designed to give our customers a quick and easy update on whats going on at harrisongreen!. We will regularly update the blog and give you details of things like;

Instant Special Offers & Promotions
Clearance lines
Used office furniture & seating offers
Useful information on our products
Health & Safety information
Ergonomic Seating information
Staff news
Links to manufacturers
Links for general business information and news

We aim not just to bombard you with offers, but give you genuinely useful information for you and your business. We would like the blog to be a little interactive too, so feel free to drop us a line if there is anything specific you would like to see included, or any questions you'd like answered!

Just for starters - heres a Special Offer on a Leather Executive Chair

Available only Whilst Stocks Last........ Ideal Christmas present?

£49.99 +VAT