CHRISTMAS SHUTDOWN 2018 – CLOSED FRIDAY 21ST DECEMBER FROM 1.00 P.M. AND REOPENING WEDNESDAY 2ND JANUARY AT 9.00 A.M.

2018 has been a very interesting year for us at Impamark.

At the beginning of the year we launched our Happy Turtle logo with the strapline “Our solution is less pollution”. This reflects our move to a more environmentally friendly stance, and we hope this will assist in raising the world wide issue of plastic pollution. We are actively focusing on more environmentally friendly promotional merchandise and promoting to our clients where possible. In addition we are Corporate members of the Essex Wildlife Trust and in August we joined the WWF’s campaign by adopting a turtle.

In September 2017 Holly joined us as an apprentice studying for her NVQ level 2 in Business Administration. We are immensely proud that in September this year she won Apprentice of the Year at the ACL Awards.

Holly has also been studying for her TPM qualification (Trained in Promotional Merchandise), and she takes her exam in December. This is an industry standard training organised by the BPMA (British Promotional Merchandise Association), of which we have been members for over 10 years.

In addition, Will, our IT Support Technician having completed level 3 and level 4 BTEC qualifications as part of his apprenticeship, has also completed his TPM qualification earlier this year.

As a team we have visited clients this year across the UK from the West country to Scotland. In April we held our fourth client day entitled ‘The Power of Brand’ at Five Lakes Hotel near Colchester which was attended by clients from all across the UK. We had over 30 top merchandise suppliers exhibiting, and 4 key speakers including the Director General of the BPMA. We held our first ever Business Awards which was really well received. The day was completely free of charge to those that attended, and the feedback was very positive with people saying it was a great way to find new products and ideas, and it was wonderful to learn more about branding. It was also a good opportunity for the Impamark team to meet so many of you and I am sure it will be something that we will repeat again in the future.

As a team we take training very seriously and we have all visited various supplier factories to learn more about innovative branding processes, as well as attending different trade shows across the UK so we can bring you the latest product information.

In November we exhibited at the Chelmsford Showcase for Business and also sponsored the Essex Hairdressers Under 25’s Competition, with fantastic prizes for the winners, gifts for the judges and goody bags for all attendees.

We have also raised £133 for Essex Wildlife Trust via a fundraising raffle in April, and we recently held a Macmillan Coffee Morning and raised over £270!

We would like to remind you all that Chinese New Year, (CNY) is 5th February which will mean that orders for delivery pre CNY will need to be placed before 20th December. Any orders placed in January will be delivered in March. In addition to this we don’t know at this stage what the effect of Brexit will have on our industry supply chain. Therefore, we strongly encourage everyone to place orders in December and January for any events or requirements in the first three months of 2019.

All that is left for me to say is from all of us here at Impamark we would like to thank everyone for their continued support throughout 2018. We look forward to working closely with you again next year. Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas break and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

Nicky & the Team