Article supplied by David White Owner DNEL Ltd
Every now and then, and it is rarely in business, you get the perfect job that confirms what you are trying to do and what you have worked at in trying to sell. A job that pits your wits and challenges you on every one of your abilities.
The one stop shop concept is fine but only if the client themselves get it.
Luckily for us we were given the opportunity to do just that. Back in late 2019 a major brand contacted us and said they wanted to update their brand and modernise it and deliver it to market in a big way. We met and were given access to their ideas and brand style guide. Although, quite obviously, they had some ideas we were left to come up with some schematics and ideas of our own. It quickly came apparent that we were all on the same page of garden parties and iconic British themes and budgets and confirmations were quickly sorted and now came the hard work.
Design, procure, build, print, store, deliver, activate – all done by one company. A thousand coloured oil drums, A thousand tabletops,1300 parasols, 200 Giant Jenga, 1200 branded blankets, 200 new bars, multi-coloured telephones boxes, and more was needed and all in a 3-month window. Our procurement team set about buying ethically sourced and certified items and our build team were tasked with building bars and other items from scratch. Over the coming weeks our storage warehouse became the recipient of thousands of items both big and small covering 5000 sq. metres some delivered by road and some from out dedicated build warehouse next door.
Late February and we were ready to showcase the first of the items at Pub20 at London Olympia in Feb 2020 and more exposure of the new brand was given at the London Publican award and filming for at TV advert.
Meanwhile work continued on the builds and printing, ready roll out to hundreds of pubs and venues throughout the summer. Planning commenced for the large logistic operation that was needed and bars and garden items were quickly delivered but then Covid struck!
The art of a good team and management is quick decision making and flexibility. We quickly changed our priority and focus on the things we believe could go out soon and other things could wait. That proved correct when the initial lockdown was ended and some semblance of normality commenced, the logistics team were soon out to all parts of the country. Little did we know how short lived this could be or how long this would last but our contingencies and extra storage space proved invaluable. And here we are in March 2021 with only half a job done but with a client who is so happy with what we have done so far, and we have already engaged to complete the roll out starting in March.
So, the one stop concept works and other than some procurement from around the world the job has and will be totally handled by one business from concept to completion.
