Ecmod Award Winner 2014

Winner of Best Business in the Home category

We are very pleased to say that we have won an Ecmod Award for the second year running. After winning the Outstanding Customer Service Award last year we tried to win it again this year. Sadly we didn’t win the customer service award – something I am still disappointed about! – but we did win the Best Business in the Home category. This covered a wide range of companies, from home furnishings to food and drink, and stationery of course! We are very chuffed to be a multiple award winning company now and who knows what awaits us in 2015?!

The event itself was a more summery affair this year, having been moved from April to June. After last year’s event in bowels of Stamford Bridge this time we were off to the Hurlingham Club down by the river in Fulham. Never having been there before it certainly lived up to expectations on the way in – all the beautiful people playing tennis as our taxi drove through the very smart grounds.

As something of an awards-veteran now of two years, this one followed the same format as last year – champagne reception, very nice meal, interesting chit chat with whoever you are sitting next to, awards (and the winner is….Bureau Direct), a quick handshake with Dermot Murnaghan, a dodgy photo that I hope never to see, an award that was quickly whisked back out of our hands (to be engraved and sent back a few weeks later) and the truly awful moment of having a video interview. What do you say when you really don’t expect to win? I must prepare just in case next time!

My last memory of the evening, long after Jo had left me all alone, long after I personally had won a prize in the charity draw, and long after I had had one too many glasses of wine, was sitting on the tube going home in my black tie with a bottle of champagne by my feet and wondering what on earth I looked like. The fact that I think I fell asleep and woke up at my stop with the champagne still there was very lucky.

A last note – the reason this has only been written now is that I have been waiting and waiting for a nice little winners award badge that I can post to the website and the  blog but Ecmod haven’t sent one through. We have our award back – where’s our badge?

National Stationery Week Competition – The Winners

We had a fantastic response to our competition last week, hopefully a sign of how popular stationery is today. After going through all the entries we have decided on the winner, plus the 9 runners-up.

“I’m a stationery addict because…”

The Winner

Despite a lot of competition, we just loved this entry. It conveys the impact of stationery addiction very well. Oh, and it gave me a rather nice title that I might just adopt from now on. Click on the image to see it in its full glory.

Congratulations to Chichi Parish who won the Herbin Tempete fountain pen. You might also be interested in her website.

The Runners-Up

In no particular order, the runners-up were:

“…it’s safe, legal, non fattening and my dealer is available online 24 hours a day.”

Michael Alderton won a set of 4 Paperways notepads

We say: We loved the idea of being seen as a dealer

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“…I have an ASBO that prevents me from entering stationery shops (well I wish I did as I would be so much richer). I have a better equipped home office than any office i’ve ever worked in (or was until I got my hands on the stationery catalogue). If i never buy another pad, pencil, coloured paper, card in my life I will be self sufficient. I have often wondered if I should start SA – but if I did we would just end up discussing who has the best, most fun stationery around.”

Maria Netley won a set of the new Field Notes Shelterwood notebooks

We say: Anyone who can fit in the idea of a stationery ASBO had to win a prize.

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“…I know I’m a stationery addict because I have 41 (and counting) brand new notebooks of varying sizes that are just too nice to write notes in…! (It can’t just be me, surely??!)”

Jo Coulson won a set of Papelote Amok notebooks

We say: An appropriate sense of the power of stationery addiction – untouched notebooks!

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“…I want to leave something behind for the archaeologists of the future to read whilst they are thinking of how to extract a 200 year old email.”

 Michael Waddington won a Herbin Pen-&-Ink Set

Surely says it all in the struggle for paper vs digital?

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“…I have made a pilgrimage to a seven storey stationery shop in Tokyo!”

Heather Dontenville (via Twitter) won an MT  Wamon tape set

We say: Again, we congratulate someone for getting in the word ‘pilgramage’ into their entry.

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“…I own 8 Filofaxes, two Lamy Al Stars, way too many rolls of MT tape, I have a very organised system of revision for my A Levels and I have to SMUGGLE new stationery purchases into the house! Oh and I work in a displeasing high street stationery and book shop chain… Help me!”

Rosie Summers won the neat Harinacs staple-less stapler

We say: We do our bit to help someone stuck in the wrong type of stationery business…

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“…it reminds me of being a child in a sweet shop, gazing up at the rows of jars full of brightly coloured treats and wanting it all.”

Katie Swift won the aromatic Coccoina glue

We say: This tapped into something we have been thinking about and saw at a recent trade fair – stationery in jars. It works too.

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“…pens come in all shapes and sizes and I love them all. Each pen to us is like a paintbrush to an artist. A thin brush is used for fine lines or to apply a small bit of colour to possibly a small section in the drawing or painting. For us, a pen with a tiny tip is used to write, doodle and make things look neat and also to use them for one particular purpose understood and known only to our personal self. A fountain pen could be used to make our handwriting and whatever else we use it for to look professional and fancy. A calligraphy brush for the Chinese is the equivalent of a fountain pen for us. A biro pen is best for quick everyday writing wherever you are, whether you are booking an appointment, signing something at the bank or just jotting a funny thing you just thought of. A computer is all very well but when using a pen, it makes your writing more personal to you. No one writes like you and no one has the same handwriting as you so using a pen draws out your personality in the stationary and literary world. If you can be yourself in the real world be yourself in the imaginary and writing world.

We talk about paper and what is best for the environment like ‘recycled paper is the best because it means that we don’t have to cut down so many trees’ or ‘cut down more trees so we can have new soft coloured paper!’ In actual fact we can still colour on to recycled paper and so while we enjoy what we like with stationary if we use recycled things we help the world too! Note pads are perfect because they can be used for anything like diaries, travel journals, thought books and schoolbooks.”

Flora Lang (aged 12) won a Neocritz Pencil case

We say: One of the longer entries, but worryingly impressive for someone so young (he says not meaning to sound patronising)

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And finally…

“Your lights are on, but you’re not home
Your mind is not your own
You need a ruler, your hand shakes
Another notebook is what it takes
You can’t sleep, you need ink
There’s no way, that you can think.
Your throat is tight, you can’t breathe
Another pencil is all you need
Ohh oohh

You like to think that you’re immune and won’t buy more
It’s closer to the truth to say you keep looking at the store
You know you’re gonna have to face it
You’re addicted and will buy more

You see the ads, and have to read
You’re writin’ at a different speed
You heart beats in double time
Another pen must be mine, a one track mind.
You can’t be saved.
-stationery is all you crave
There’s some new rubbers left for you
You don’t mind if you do
Ohh oohh

You like to think that you’re immune and won’t buy more
It’s closer to the truth to say you keep looking at the store
You know you’re gonna have to face it
You’re addicted and will buy more”

Janet Hutson (with just a little help from Robert Palmer) won a Lamy Al-Star bluegreen fountain pen

We say: A worthy prize winner, with such attention to detail. Oh, and by chance it also hit a little bit of family history thereby sealing its place on the winning list. In case you haven’t worked it out, here is the answer.

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And the winner is…

The 2013 ECMOD Awards

We’re probably the least showy company around, and at times it is almost as though we go out of our way to avoid the limelight, but I took the decision to raise our profile last year. Small can be beautiful but we have to survive as well! We love what we do, we are very proud of what we do, and although not perfect, we do try and offer something better than you will find elsewhere. When an industry awards competition came up last month, we decided to put ourselves forward for an award, and Outstanding Customer Service seemed a suitable award to show how we try and do things a little differently. Given that the submission for the award came on the same day we were moving premises, it was something of a mad rush to get the entry prepared and in on time. It was therefore a bit of a nice surprise when we were shortlisted for our award, and invited to a glitzy ‘do’ at Chelsea Football Club. I can’t ever remember winning anything previously – maybe a tombola prize, and I did score the required three penalties at the school summer fair a couple of years ago to win something – so it was something a shock and slightly surreal when Dermot Murnaghan called out our name. Hopefully the video interview afterwards will never see the light of day.

The honest response to winning is a mixed one – I personally do believe that we go beyond the usual empty customer service promises that you find around. We may also make a mess of your order, but will take personal responsibility to resolve it if we do. However, I also feel that we have a lot of improving to do, so nice as it is to get such an award, we will hopefully do a much better job of it over the next 12 months and beyond.

A big thank you to anyone who has submitted positive feedback as we did use this as part of our submission, to show how we tried to establish relationships with customers. The feedback was very nice to receive, and it demonstrated that we were trying to do something that others were glad to receive – real people who were prepared to be helpful and available and to treat you as we would expect to be treated. Here’s to a better future for Bureau and yet more exciting stationery coming your way.