Dunlop Multi Skill Challenge 2017!

Dunlop  has kicked off its Multi-Skill Champion Competition to find the best multi-skill construction student in the UK with a series of regional college heats. The competition is the only one of its kind in the UK to recognise students across the UK taking the City & Guilds Construction Skills (6219) qualification. 

This year, STS and NoMorePly are supporting the competition and will be attending 20 colleges across the country, alongside Gareth Birks - aka Dunlopman - as well as Dunlop's team of Product Support Technicians to provide free training and present a trophy to the individual nominated by the college to compete in the Grand Final. 

The Grand Final will take place on 15th June at Dunlop's head office in Stoke. Judges at the Grand Final this year include Dave Rowley, lead judge for the national SkillBuild finals for wall and floor tiling and Training Manager at Dunlop, Wayne de Wet, professional decorator & renowned industry expert and.Nicola Butcher, aka “The Female Chippy”, a multi-award winning carpenter.

We're very excited to be supporting our friends at Dunlop this year and can't wait for it all to start on 26th April - it's going to be a great couple of months! The winners of each college heat will be posted on NoMorePly and Dunlop's Twitter accounts, so make sure you follow along for updates!

New Product Launches!

Here at STS, we're always developing new ways of doing things to bring you new and innovative products.This month sees the launch of two new products which are an improvement on some old ones. 

MegaTank Kit

Our new MegaTank Kit is unlike anything currently on the market. Our revolutionary BlueTank membrane is a one-coat tanking membrane which dries in approximately two hours. This dramatically decreases installation time as there is no waiting period between coats. 

The Tanking Primer contains quartz particles for improved adhesion, and is ready to receive the BlueTank membrane when touch dry.
The kit comes with a roll of waterproof tape with a split back for sealing the edges of the tray and bedding into corners. 

MegaTank is an 8m² kit and is available from 18th April.

Torx Screws

Torx Screws were developed as we have listened to feedback about our NoMorePly screws, and how they need improving. 

The Torx screws are easier to use because they stay on the drill better and stay locked in until the screw is fully driven in.  This makes it a better way of getting the screw absolutely flush with the board with no raised head.  Each box comes with a Torx drill bit so no tradesperson has to worry about not having a Torx bit currently.  

The Torx Screws ara available in boxes of 50s and 200s, in both 25mm and 38mm and are available to purchase now. 

NMBS Exhibition 2017 Roundup

On 5th April 2017, a team of Navy-and-White-clad people armed with boxes of lindt chocolate and two rubber ducks descended on the RICOH Arena in Coventry for the NMBS Exhibition. At 8:45am, the doors opened and the day began, with merchant members flooding the hall in no time at all. 
There were some really awesome stands at the exhibition - Ox had sand sculptures, Hitatchi were playing some great music all day and Dickies workwear had living mannequins (which were only moderately terrifying).

Our stand was consistently busy all day, with visitors from customers new and old. It was great to catch up with some of our current customers, putting a face to a name was a good experience for those who don't get to get out of the office much.
Vanessa spent some of the day chasing people around with chocolate in an effort to get them to speak to her, so she had the most conversations of any of our reps at the stand. 

Our new MegaTank tanking kit and Torx Screws went down a treat, with orders received for both. More on those in a separate blog to come. 

We're really grateful to everyone who came to see us on our stand, you all helped to make a good day great. 

Roll on next year when we get to do it all again!

Click & Collect is moving!

From 10th April 2017, our click & collect facility will be be operating from our new warehouse in Pudsey.

The move to our new warehouse has been long anticipated and greatly welcomed. The premises is much bigger than our old warehouse premises, which also means we can dispatch all our goods from under one roof. 

The address is as follows: 

Astonish House
Grangefield Industrial Estate
Richardshaw Road
Pudsey
Leeds
LS28 6QZ

Collection times will be from 7am until 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Why not place your orders online? Place your orders online the night before and they'll be ready for you in the morning! Log in to your account to have a look today!

STS at the 2017 NMBS Exhibition
STS will be attending the NMBS Exhibition at the Ricoh arena in Coventry on 5th April. Come see us on Stand 75!

The NMBS Exhibition is one of the biggest and best events on any merchant's calendar, and is always hugely attended by both merchants and suppliers alike. The exhibition is one of a kind, where the emphasis is placed on trading with the attending merchants, who will be able to take advantage of on-the-day exclusive deals and additional rebates. Additionally, the chance for the merchant members to meet and interact with the suppliers is a very valuable experience and one that should make the trip to Coventry well worth the effort. 

Last year's exhibition was the most attended in its near fifty year history, with 906 merchant visitors and in excess of 250 NMBS suppliers appearing at the show. This year looks to be even better than that, with approximately 1200 merchant visitors registered to attend.

This year, STS will be attending the show, exhibiting on Stand 75. Our On-The-Spot Buy will be our MegaTank Tanking Kit, which is an easy to use 8m² system. It can be painted or tiled over and can be used in any wet area to completely waterproof your room.
STS will also be offering a 12.5% rebate on any orders placed on the stand, which is not to be sniffed at! 

STS is best known for NoMorePly, the fastest growing brand of fibre cement board in the UK. We manufacture and distribute a range of boarding and wetroom systems, plus tiling supplies including trims and tools. All our products are tried and tested to consistently outperform alternatives and all systems come woth lifetime guarantees for the user's complete peace of mind. 

Make sure you come see us at Stand 75 on 5th April to take advantage of our offers!

Cevisama 2017

Last week, Eddie and Reuben jetted off to Valencia in Spain for the annual Cevisama Expo. Cevisama is an annual event where tile manufacturers and sanitary ware manuacturers from around the world gather to display their wares to architects and specifiers. There was lots to see and do over the four days, and even Villareal CF football team visited one of the stands on Tuesday 21st. 

There werre a lot cool things around the show, and a lot of evidently emerging trends, a couple of which we'll feature in separate blogs, but we'll round up the main trends here. 

One of the main emerging trends was the "going large" trend - there were enormous slabs of marble-effect porcelain and sheets of wood-effect tiles that were over two metres long. The tiles were roughly 12mm thick, so they look like they would have been a four person install. 

A continuing trend is grey tiles, which were once again a prominent feature throughout the show, used in a lot of feature walls and bathroom mockups, continuing the sleek and designer look of the bathrooms. 

Mosaics were less prominent at this year's show, with almost no stands that we saw displaying any mosaics other than border strips, and the border strips that were there were being done with a band of textured tiles the same colour as the plain tiles. 

Another trend that seems to be falling out is the wood-effect tiles, as these seem to be getting squeezed out by the textured tiles. There were stil wood-effect tiles around, but they certainly weren't as prominent.  

Stay tuned for a couple more blog posts on the big trends of the year!

The Importance of Good Customer Service

Good customer service is about understanding the needs of different customers, keeping promises and delivering consistently high standards. Eight out of ten customers say that good customer service can influence their choice of company, according to the 2013 Which? survey. Four in ten would be willing to pay more for better service and 86 per cent of respondents would leave an organisation that treated them poorly. The cost of bad customer service far outweighs the cost of good customer service. 

A great customer service team is an integral part of any successful business. Whether your customers are one-man operations or huge companies, treating them with respect and care is one of the best ways to strengthen your company’s reputation. Having a great customer service team is what is going to keep your customers coming back to you time after time - initially, good prices and cheap deals might entice new customers, but having a good relationship with a customer is what will keep them. 

Having a great customer service team doesn't just benefit your customers, it also benefits your business. The best way to promote your business is by word of mouth marketing. Similarly, bad customer service can impact massively on your company's reputation. With the popularisation of social media, you can almost guarantee if something good or bad happens, people are going to share it on their social media networks. This leads to direct publicity for your business, and there are many, many examples in the news these days - some good, and some awful. This proves that your customers are talking about you, and it's up to you to join in the conversation and influence the outcome.

So, what are the easiest ways to encourage a great customer service team? Being honest and open with your customers is a great starting point, even if it means confessing to a problem. Communication is always key, especially when something has gone wrong, and if your customers know about problems then you can work with them to resolve them. Ease of communication is another big factor - having information readily available in different formats for your customers is a great way to keep a relationship strong. Finally, you should listen to feedback. It might get tiresome listening to complaints, but then at least you have direction on what needs fixing and it allows you to understand your customers' experiences. 

Do you have any feedback to share with us? Let us know here.

Written by Natalie Wainman, Customer Service and Office Manager at STS

STS, Dunlop and Ardex conquer the mountains

On Saturday 24th September at 7:50am, in the depths 
of the Yorkshire Dales, a small congregation of people met, with one goal in mind - to scale the three peaks. 

Joanne from STS joined Gareth, John and Steve from Dunlop and Lee from Ardex in the shadow of the three peaks. Lunches were packed, thick socks were on and the walk began.

The day started well, with our intrepid explorers scaling the first peak together, but the group split up from thereon out.

Despite the split, the teams cracked on, with the challenge being completed by the end of the day. Gareth conquered all three peaks in nine hours, which is a great achievement. 

Joanne said it was one of the toughest things she's ever done and hopes that the next activity involves sitting down! 

Here's to the next adventure!

Image Credit: Gareth Birks & Joanne Hodgkins

STS attends the Flooring and Tiling Show

Every year, Harrogate International Centre plays host to The Flooring Show, which is hailed as the industry's flagship event and continues to be one of the biggest and best loved in the industry. 

This year, the Flooring Show's 54th year,was the first time that the Tiling and Flooring shows were co-locacted in Harrogate's International Centre.

The show aims to bring together all areas of the industry, and exhibitors and visitors alike get together for three days of exhibits, displays and demonstrations under one roof. With no other B2B show in this sector in the UK, the show hopes to build a unique platform for manufacturers and distributors to show current products and to launch new and exciting designs.

STS attended the show on 19th and 20th September, on one of the biggest stands right next to the demo area of the Tiling Show.

This meant we had a prime spot to watch the demos over the couple of days, including demos from  N&C,   BAL and Instarmac.

We were also conducting hands-on demos on our own stand, including scoring and  snapping the 6mm NoMorePly, applying MegaStrength to  the board and drilling the boards to some mocked-up flooring.

Some of our customers visited the stand over the two days (including Craig Sellars, who I pinched this picture from) and we saw some of our friends from other companies, such as Dunlop Adhesives, Genesis and Tilemaster. 

Overall the show was a success and we had a lot of fun. Here's to the next one!

H&B Activity Day

Arrows were let fly and tyres squealed through the
mud at Carden Park in Chester on Tuesday for
the annual H&B Activity Day. The

H&B Group put on an annual activity day for members and suppliers to attend, to allow them to relax and network whilst having fun. 

Vanessa and Mark went representing STS and NoMorePly, and Vanessa went prepared for the rain (in her £28 mac from George at Asda) despite the forecast for the hottest day of the year. Sure enough, Vanessa was proved right when the heavens opened and those attending in shorts and canvas shoes got more than a little bit damp, naming no names (Baljit). 

 Those who were doing clay pigeon  shooting were led up into the hills in  the fog whilst the golfers were  trudging round the course in the  rain. Vanessa tells us that Nicola  from Beatsons was robbed out of a  perfect 50 score on the laser  archery due to a so-called "faulty  gun". 

 Mark represented STS in the laser  clay pigeon shooting alongside Cliff  from Chestnut Building Centres.

 At dinner, Steve Morgan gave a    speech and the  attendees were  entertained by the comedy  stylings  of John Culshaw. The day slowly  wound into the night with reports that the bar was still  packed at 3:30am with people making merry  into the small hours.

Following the activity day was an H&B Exhibition, which was two hours of the members walking round to see the suppliers. There was a great turnout for day two, with lots of members and suppliers attending. STS launched NoMorePly, NoMorePly Wetrooms, Tanking Kits and Trims on the day. 

All in all, the event was a big success, with new friendships forged in mud and rain. Thanks very much for having us, here's to doing it all again next year!