City Family Firm Gives Young Footballers Sense Of Pride

 Aberdeen City, Featured, Sport  No Responses »
Feb 172017
 

With thanks to Yvette Rayner, PR Account Manager, Frasermedia.

A football-mad Aberdeen family firm is helping local youngster to gear up for local football festivals. Greenwell Equipment (Greenwell), which is based in East Tullos, has provided high quality track-suit tops and bottoms to 27 boys at Newmachar United Football Club. 

The boys, aged 6-8 years, attend football festivals across the North-east and train at the Newmachar Axis Centre.

Mark Turnbull, managing director of Greenwell, is a big supporter of the club, and his son Cal, age 6, has been playing with Newmachar United FC for over two years.

Greenwell Equipment supplies modular buildings, containers, warehouse shelving and pallet racking and office furniture across the world, and the family run firm employs 15 people.

Managing director Mark is a keen football fan, and played himself as a boy and young man. He has recently started assisting the coaches at the club, with a view to training to becoming a qualified coach.

Mr Turnbull said:

“I am delighted to help out Newmachar United FC. It is a great, local club, which gives youngsters the chance to get some exercise, acquire new skills and learn how to work well in a team. Greenwell Equipment also supports Aberdeen Football Club’s Youth Academy, as we see football as an important local activity and also a great discipline and training ground for young people.”

Derek Reid, one of the coaches for the club said:

“We are really grateful for Mark and Greenwell for their support. We often attend football festivals and the other teams all look great in their kit, so we are thrilled to see our boys all now looking professional. It gives the players a real sense of pride and belonging. Newmachar United FC is an inclusive club, there are no try-outs, and we are open to every child of any ability, so we try to keep our costs to a minimum.

“Kit sponsorship is important as it makes the boys proud to belong to Newmachar United FC, and encourages them to try their best for the team. The cost of football strips, equipment and transport can add up, so we welcome all the support we can get. The boys are delighted with the new, warm track-suits which they are wearing with pride.”

Greenwell Equipment comprises of four divisions, encompassing: Greenwell Warehousing, a supplier of high quality shelving and pallet racking; Greenwell Cabins, a distributor of accommodation and welfare modules; Greenwell Office, a supplier of a wide range of business furniture both new and second-hand, and Greenwell Containers, a supplier of high-quality shipping containers.

Family-run business Greenwell, which has 15 employees, is the North of Scotland official trading partner for Containex modular buildings. Greenwell holds a large stock at its depots across Aberdeen and Angus, enabling the firm to respond quickly to customers’ demands.

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Eastern Bazaar To Pop-Up At Historic Kincardine Castle

 Articles  No Responses »
Oct 212016
 

With thanks to Ian McLaren, PR account manager, Innes Associates.

From the park

Kincardine Castle is hosting The Nomads Tent Roadshow this autumn.

An Aberdeenshire castle will be transformed into an Eastern bazaar later this month as a Scottish home furnishing, textile and gift company opens a pop-up shop inside its historic walls.

Kincardine Castle on Royal Deeside, which is not normally open to the public, will throw open its Victorian doors to visitors when The Nomads Tent Roadshow arrives later this month.

The pop-up shop will run from Friday, 28 October until Sunday, 06 November and feature a wide range of authentic Middle and Far Eastern goods available for purchase, bringing a flavour of the Orient to the oldest village on Deeside.

The Nomads Tent is a popular Edinburgh-based warehouse that sells a range of items, including carpets, rugs, furniture, pottery, lanterns, Christmas decorations, scarves and jewellery. All of which is sourced from markets and bazaars in countries including India, Turkey, Vietnam and Morocco.

A private family residence, Kincardine Castle is widely used as a venue for meetings, conferences, corporate events and weddings.  It also offers group accommodation in 16 of its bedrooms. The Nomads Tent pop-up eastern bazaar will give the public a chance to venture inside this late Victorian arts and crafts style castle free of charge.

As part of the 10-day event, a series of fringe events will also be held at the castle, which sits on the outskirts of Kincardine O’Neil, four miles east of Aboyne. On Tuesday, 01 November a dinner and illustrated talk on the origins and imagery of Persian garden carpets will be held, with money being raised for Scottish children’s charity Children 1st.

Tea, coffee and light lunches will be available in the castle each day during the roadshow, but Kincardine’s monthly pop-up café with its more extensive lunch menu will take place on Friday, 04 November.  Two half-day cookery classes will also take place at the castle. Run by Kincardine Cookery, the class on Saturday, 05 November will feature Middle Eastern cuisine, while Indian cookery will be covered on Sunday, 06 November.

Nicky Bradford of Kincardine Castle said:

“We are very excited that The Nomads Tent Roadshow is pitching up at Kincardine for 10 days this autumn to set out its wares. The pop-up shop is a great way to experience some of the huge range of authentic eastern furnishings, textiles and gifts that it offers, including some Christmas items.

“It is shaping up to be a brilliant few days with something for everyone. Food features in all the fringe events, providing a platform for us to showcase some of the fantastic local produce that is grown in Deeside.

“Kincardine Castle has always welcomed people and has a real buzz to it when packed with guests.  Over the past 30 years we’ve worked to increase the number and variety of events that can be held here, but we’ve never opened the castle up to visitors for so many days at a time. We’re looking forward to welcoming everyone to our historic home.”

The Nomads Tent Roadshow will take place at Kincardine Castle from Friday, 28 October until Sunday, 06 November, opening daily between 10:00am and 5:00pm, except on Sundays when it will open at 11:30am.

Kincardine Castle is the centrepiece of the 3,000-acre Kincardine Estate, which is owned and managed by Andrew and Nicky Bradford. The estate was bought in the 1880s by Andrew’s great-grandmother and the castle remains a private family residence. Built in 1894, the castle was designed by architects David Niven and Herbert Wigglesworth.

The building incorporates elements of five centuries of castle architecture in its design, starting with the 14th century style square keep tower.  Kincardine Castle is available for hire for a range of events, including meetings, conferences, dinners and weddings. Sixteen bedrooms in the castle provide overnight accommodation for groups of six or more.

For further information Kincardine Castle, visit www.kincardinecastle.com or telephone 01339 884225.

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Langstane Announces Completion Of £1.6m Contract

 Aberdeen City, Articles  No Responses »
Mar 172016
 

Colin CampbellWith thanks to Beverly Tricker, Tricker PR.

Langstane, Scotland’s largest independent office products company, yesterday announced completion of the highest value contract in its seven decade history – a £1.6m deal to supply office and patient furniture to the new Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.

The firm provided and installed 20,000 individual pieces in total at three buildings within the hospital complex; the children’s hospital, the teaching and learning centre and the administration block.

Langstane has been supplying office furniture to the NHS in Scotland for nine years, but this competitively tendered contract is the largest single contract which the firm has delivered under their framework agreement.

“Langstane is known as a provider of quality office furniture,” says managing director Colin Campbell,

“so, the move to also provide patient care furniture such as chairs, over bed tables and patient lockers was a natural product extension for us. As a trusted NHS provider, we were able to use our established track record in delivering office furniture on time and within budget for them and to diversify our product range to satisfy this comprehensive contract requirement.

“We have worked on many major office furniture contracts such as the provision of all furniture for the Prime Four Business Park offices at Kingswells on the outskirts of Aberdeen, but this Glasgow-based contract is the largest one which we have ever undertaken and shows that with our divisions across Scotland, Langstane can provide ‘any time, anywhere and any quantity’.”

The furniture supplied to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital included high back wing back arm chairs, over bed tables, patient lockers, coffee tables, desks, stacking chairs with writing tablets, wall mounted storage and sofas.

The Langstane team was involved from the planning stages of the project, consulting with the client and contractors and providing suggested layouts. This was followed by product sample days where staff and client focus groups could share their thoughts on the planned furniture pieces and the layouts.

The simultaneous construction of the three buildings which were to be furnished provided logistical challenges. Langstane devised a complex delivery schedule which included direct site delivery from manufacturers in one hour slots to allow the Langstane team and the sub contractors to unload and position each drop to allow the build process to take place on site.

“The provision of patient care furniture has diversified our Langstane product range,” adds Colin,

“but such diversification is not new to Langstane. Our business has been built on a process of continually asking our clients what else we can do for them from the post-wars days when my father and uncles began providing pencils and pens to their customers when they delivered their print orders.

Our four divisions of office supplies, office furniture, printing and promotional products can deliver a comprehensive range of everything an office needs and now we can deliver the same complete package to the patient care sector from new hospital complexes like the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital to individual GPs surgeries and care homes.”

Langstane is Scotland’s largest independent office products company and is one of the largest in the UK. Langstane, established in 1947 in Aberdeen remains a family business and has further branches in Dundee, Livingstone and Inverurie. Langstane employs over 137 staff and has a turnover of £17.5m. More about the company can be found at www.langstane.co.uk.

IKEAaaargh!!!

 Creative Writing, Opinion  6 Responses »
Jul 052013
 

By Bob Smith.

ikea

Bring IKEA tae Aiberdeen Campaign
Is aneuch tae mak me splutter
Anither bliddy multi national
Causin local shops tae stutter
.
Ye cwidna ca me a racist
A’ve nae problem wi the Swedes
Bit wi’ve plunty local shoppies
Tae cater fer furnishin needs
.
There’s Anderson’s o Inverurie
Sainsbury & Sons doon Holburn wye
An Celebrations oot in Turra toon
Berrys o Oldmeldrum weel worth a try		 Noo the profit made bi IKEA
Eichty per cint wull disappear
Oot o the local economy
Awa back tae Sweden a fear
.
Bring IKEA tae Aiberdeen campaign
We can dee withoot iss fine
IKEA tak aa yer flatpacks
Stick em “faar the sun disna shine”
.
Lit’s hear it fer local shoppies
Lang may their like we see
They support the local economy
So fae IKEA lit’s aye bi free.

Bob Smith “The Poetry Mannie” 2013
Image credit:  Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

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Bring IKEA To Aberdeen Campaign

 Aberdeenshire, Information, Opinion  12 Responses »
Jul 022013
 

Flat-pack Disaster
By Duncan Harley.

It’s not often that I am gob smacked. The two recent Iraqi wars and the invasion of Afghanistan by the so called coalition forces are in some eyes mad events, but in a strange sort of way seem understandable if you know anything much about the Great Game or Afghan history.

The resultant Twin Towers revenge attack, despite the awfulness of the event and the aftermath, were also understandable from some world perspectives. Not that I am defending the perpetrators of any these acts of course.

However the invasion of Aberdeen by IKEA is perhaps a step too far.

I have of course, recently moved house and have suffered from the complete collapse of most of my bedroom furniture during the removal.

The moving company did warn me in advance and also helpfully advised that the Nordic manufacturer’s products were unlikely to survive the moving of things. In fact they told me that the best way to re-flat pack the items was to chuck them up in the air to destroy them on landing prior to taking the wrecked items to a re-cycling centre, thus saving any potential litigation issues.

One of my removal men also claimed that IKEA is actually the manufacturer of most of the flat pack pine furniture available in B and Q and Homebase but that the multinational produces the non IKEA products to a lower specification in order to protect their market position. IKEA have unfortunately yet to respond to my questions regarding the validity of this claim.

Today a spokesperson for “Bring IKEA to Aberdeen” has told me that a new Scottish IKEA warehouse might be opening a in the shire or even a bit further north very soon. I have of course some mixed feelings about this given my recent experiences but I do understand that the brand fulfils a need at a price which many can afford. According to the pressure group:

“Plenty of people have told us they would like one further north to increase their choices as consumers, to avoid the lengthy and costly travel to the current sites in Edinburgh and Glasgow.”

Another member of “Bring IKEA to Aberdeen” said:

“We are hoping they just realise the potential of a BIG store up here, and go for it… however if smaller was the only option, we would accept that grudgingly as well… the population of Aberdeen, the shire, the highlands AND the islands is pretty high – so we hope they see that Aberdeen or the shire, is a very viable option…. the north of Scotland has been left out for FAR too long.”

I spoke to the groups local representative Jan who rightly commented that there are plenty of other “Multi’s” all over Aberdeen and the Shire, so why not IKEA? Their furniture may be cheap, she said, but it lasts. It’s quite stylish Jan told me, plus their “knick-knacks” are amazing. It would bring jobs and some furniture competition to the local market.

The groups Facebook site proclaims:

“Let’s get this page up and running – and then let Ikea know JUST how popular a store would be in Aberdeen, Scotland”

A spokesperson by the name of Lou told me that Job wise if you consider day and night shift, catering, cleaning crew, back of store crew, tills, management there could be a significant jobs gain for the region. “After all,” she commented “it’s not a corner shop we are talking about here.”

The “Bring IKEA to Aberdeen” is currently awaiting an announcement from the retail giant regarding the future plans of IKEA in Aberdeenshire and I wish them well. However I seem to recall a man by the name of Donald Trump promising all and delivering very little to the North East recently.

Let’s trust and hope that IKEA‘s forthcoming announcement pleases all those flat pack fans amongst us and also creates a few decently paid jobs in the process.

 Sources:

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