Coving and Cornice Makeover

Hello again all.

Well what a week it’s been, first we had Fathers day on Sunday, then we have been rushed off our feet with the Chandelier Company and now we are busy preparing a new news system for our international websites.

At the moment we have some 30 international variations of our product lines, with 10 in the local countries language. As you can imagine it’s not easy to keep these websites up to date with the latest information, and that’s where I’ve been busy helping out.

Today I was preparing a system which would allow us to keep track of all our news posts from one area, allowing for a quick translation of our news posts, while making sure all the information given is relevant to the website where it is being published. We shall have to wait till next week to see what the staff thinks of the system, let’s hope they like it.

I know I went on about this last time, but I want to do it again because its something we are very proud of here in Bonds. We have recently released 10 international websites, completely translated into their mother tongue. So far we have our Coving English, Coving French, Coving Portuguese, Coving Spanish, Coving Italian, Coving German, Coving Swedish, Coving Danish and our Norwegian Coving website. In the future we are looking at expanding our international base, and ask you for your comments. Please either email me directly on dave@bondscorporate.co.uk or visit the contact area.

Lets hope this sunshine stays (although I’ve heard we can expect rain over the weekend)

All the best
Dave.

New Coving sites, Search Features and North Wales Weather...

Hello everyone,

Sorry it’s been so long since my last blog entry. I’ve been busy helping Grant set up the international plaster websites. Last time I told you about our French version of Bonds Plaster Mouldings, but we now have our German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese websites to add on top! All these websites have been translated into their countries language which, believe me, took poor Grant, Ruth and Lynne hours to do!

Also another reason I haven’t been able to write a blog post for a few weeks is because I’ve been busy programming our brand new search feature for the Chandeliers Company website. The new search feature allows users to deep search our product range, with the option to search by size, width, diameter, price, number of lights .etc.

The search feature was created to answer the growing comments we have been receiving from our customers. We offer over 1,500 different chandelier products, so finding the correct one for any person can be a challenge. Customers would contact us after using our website, and ask for a more specific search. Let’s say for example a ceiling could only support 30kg and less, well browsing through 1,500 products to find chandeliers lighter then 30kg could be a challenge, but now customers can easily select how heavy they want their chandelier to be and then only products less then 30kg are shown!

On a less formal note, is anyone else confused by the weather we are having at the moment? I don’t know about you guys, but our weather here in North Wales has been up and down all day. Infact yesterday we started with a storm and ended up basking in the sun!

As always you can contact us directly either via email on info@bondscorporate.co.uk or follow the contact details on any of our websites.

Hope you have a good day

Regards

David.

Chandeliers, Photos, French and More!

Hello again!

Well it’s been a busy week here in the office. Today I’ve been sorting out our EAN barcodes for our House of Silk line, spending half the day on the phone and the other half pulling my hair out trying to get our system to integrate better with Amazon!

Ruth has been answering calls from customers nearly none stop, rather her than me! Lynne has been busy taking photos in our new Photographic room, for the new products we are about to release and Grant has been learning to speak French for the new Coving French website!

Peter has also been busy today. He has been working non stop to increase our Murano Chandeliers range available to purchase on our website. So far we have over 1,000 Chandeliers available for purchase on the Chandelier Companies website, and about 9,000 left to upload!

On a lighter side, Ruth asked me to mention a local Photography company, here in north Wales. Cambrian Photographic Shop gave both Lynne and Ruth a half day training session a few weeks back, to help them get to grips will all the new gadgets they get to play with in the Photography room. Apparently the day was “fun and entertaining” for both of them, and they walked away with several new ideas, which you should hopefully see across our websites soon.

So as a round up, this week we have launched a new range, put our products onto Amazon and eBay, added over 200 new product lines and even learned to speak French!

Not a bad week at all

Until next time

Au revoir

Fathers Day Silk Gift Ideas Sunday 21 June 2009

Hello again!

Well it’s been another busy day in the office! You may be able to tell I have found a new hobby in this blog, thankfully I get paid to edit it too!

Just before I head home for a nice relaxing drink (or two) I just wanted to mention the fact it’s nearly fathers day! I don’t know about you, but I always find it hard to find a gift for my dad… and usually end up getting a pair of socks, lol.

I just thought id mention the fact that the House of Silk website has a large collection of gifts you might like to consider for your dad this fathers day. I asked Ruth earlier today (the wonderful lady in charge of The House of Silk) if she wouldn’t mind outlining what we are doing with the website for father’s day. Here is what she had to say:

[Sorry if this sounds too much like an advertisement, I don’t think Ruth has quite understood what a blog is yet!!].

“Father’s Day this year is Sunday 21st of June – The day we have that opportunity to remember that very special man in our lives. What better way then to give him a gift of pure silk?

Our range of silk garments are designed to suit all pockets. Our men’s silk knitted briefs start form just £4.99 for the brief pouch up to £18.99 for the spandex boxer. We also have a range of satin silk men’s briefs which include the full brief, high leg, thong and G-strong – all in a new range of edible colours. A little more conventional is our range of classic satin silk boxers in black, blue, burgundy, green or gold.

Our range of classic men’s silk pyjamas can be purchased on their own or with a matching short or full length dressing gown for a very special gift.

We also have a range of men’s silk scarves from the popular white satin silk aviators scarf at £24.99, the pure silk blue fringed scarf at an amazing £12.99 to the brushed silk scarves at £19.99.

We can gift wrap your present in our burgundy and gold gift boxers which are wrapped in burgundy paper, tied with a rich gold ribbon and have a card where you can write your own personal message. Alternatively let us post your gift for you.”

See? She still thinks that this is all for marketing! But seriously, she is one dab hand at making the gifts look good!

Anyway its almost 6 and time for me to get ready to go home!

Until next week,

Dave!

Our new Garages and Building Range!

Hello again, Dave here!

Well we have some exciting news for you. We have now officially released our new product range, Steel Garages and Buildings. This now means that we offer some 4,000 different products covering Silk, Plaster Mouldings, Chandeliers, Buildings and Clocks.

Our new range covers garages (single double and triple), sheds, workshops, buildings and aircraft hangers (for all your aircraft needs! Haha). Even though the website has only been live a matter of days (and working a few hours) we have already received orders for products.

I had a few minutes spare to go and ask Peter, the big boss, about what products we are selling, how we are going to combat the credit crunch and just how easy the products are to put together.

“This month our new building site has been launched offering small steel workshops and store rooms, single, double and triple garages as well as larger steel buildings. These buildings are suitable for home, work and recreational use.

We wanted to make sure that these products are easy for people to construct. Each building comes with full erection instructions and a video showing just how easy it is to put together.

This really is a very quick and cost effective way of purchasing that much needed extra storage space, and we believe they are competitively priced, so even during the credit crunch they are appealing to our customers.”

Once again not a massive amount of information! We have been working night and day to make sure our websites are growing and expanding, and also dealing with the large quantity of orders we are taking.

Like always if you have any comments, suggestions or just want to talk please feel free to either contact the team on info@bondscorporate.co.uk or me directly on david@bondscorporate.co.uk.

Time now for me to get back to work! [Woo!]

Have a good day

Dave.

Quick update about our new Clocks Range!

Hello All! Well it’s been a busy week here at Bonds. So far everyone has been working non stop to make sure all our customers receive their products on time, something we all believe is important! Thankfully, I’m not included in the “hustle and bustle” and can chill with a coffee while writing this post!

Earlier today I asked Lynne to give me some updates about our Clock Range. Our Clock range is one of the newest we offer, with just over 60 variations available. Here is what she had to say:

“Every effort has been made to offer our customers the very best value for money in these difficult times with all products on this site being reduced, some now half price.

Our range includes small mantel clocks to large grandfather and long case clocks. We also offer carriage clocks, wall clocks, desk clocks and hand carved cuckoo clocks.

Although this is one of our newer ranges, we still have over 60 different types of clock to choose from, so everyone can be sure to find a style of clock they want. Also I think its worth pointing out that our clocks can also be purchased directly from our Amazon shop and eBay!”

Not a massive amount of information, but I didn’t want to ask her too much, as she was trying to organize the delivery of 5 clocks abroad when I approached her!

Like always if you have any comments, suggestions or just want to talk please feel free to either contact the team on info@bondscorporate.co.uk or me directly on david@bondscorporate.co.uk.

Have a good day

Dave.

Moving to Holyhead and a bit about our Plaster Range

Another sunny day here in Holyhead!

Hello again, Dave here as usual. Today I got an update from Peter, the big boss. Peter over looks the whole portfolio of products Bonds sell, but today he has given me an update on our Plaster coving and cornice range and a little information about our move to our new Head office and warehouse.

“With the move to the new larger warehouse in Holyhead, we are now able to offer a local service for the people of North Wales with free delivery to all Anglesey customers.

Work has continued during May on our new websites offering our extensive range of decorative plaster mouldings to the rest of Europe. So far we now have four international websites and are looking to release a further 6 or 7 before the end of the year.

We have also begun increasing our range once again. We now have over 735 different product ranges in stock and ready to deliver from our new warehouse.”

Thanks Peter! As you can see we have a massive selection of plaster mouldings to choose from, including coving, cornice, ceiling roses and Corbels. We also now take payment in both Pounds and Euros, and deliver world wide.

Like always if you have any comments, suggestions or just want to talk please feel free to either contact the team on info@bondscorporate.co.uk or me directly on david@bondscorporate.co.uk.

Have a good day

Dave.

Updates from the Chandelier Company, thanks Grant!

Hello everyone once again!

Well I don’t know about you guys around the country, but the weather is wonderful here in North Wales, so nice in fact it’s blinding me when I stare out of the window! You never know, I might even end up with a tan.

Continuing on with last weeks post from Ruth regarding the House of Silk, I have asked Grant, the man behind The Chandelier Company, to share some news about the website.

“In order to beat the ‘credit crunch’, we took a very serious look at our profit margins towards the end of 2008. As a result we, at The Chandelier Company, have reduced our profit margins as much as is possible to give our customers the very best prices we can and still stay in business. As a result, our sales have continued to rise, making us one of the internet leaders in the provision of crystal chandeliers and light fittings.

Our range continues to be extended with more crystal replacement being made available and extra products across all our ranges. A large order for lampshades should be arriving at the end of the month to widen our product base.

We have also had a record number of orders for fitting our larger chandeliers this month.”

So not only do we have one of (if not the) largest product range of Chandeliers in the world, we are also one of the cheapest! Not bad is it?

Well as always if you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to email them over.

Have a good day

Dave.

Quick update from Ruth, Our House of Silk woman!

Hello everyone once again, David Here.

I have been round the office asking staff to write about their area of the company. Today Ruth has wrote me an update in regards to our House of Silk website.

“In our quest to make available our unique range of pure silk garments to everyone, work has continued on our foreign sites with a few clichés in the new sites found and rectified. Now attention is being given to our new French site so that people in France can buy our products in their own language. This is presenting a few technical challenges for our IT team [Note: That includes me, David!], but daily solutions are being found and the work moves on.

During May we have been looking at new ranges to introduce later on this year. This has resulted in us looking to increase our men’s knitted underwear range including more knitted briefs and boxers and a larger range of vests and T shirts. We are also introducing a new colour to our classical pyjamas. Watch this space for more. We are also looking to introduce a new short pyjama for men with a short sleeved jacket and short trousers. For the women we are extending our colour selection to some ranges and intend introducing pure silk thermal underwear at the end of the summer. This range will include Long John sets for women, long briefs, full briefs and a range of sleeveless and short sleeved vests.

Meanwhile our existing ranges are selling well with highest sales still being our classic pyjamas for men and extensive range of men’s pure silk underwear. Our new range of men’s satin silk briefs in our edible colour range, which was introduced for Saint Valentine’s Day earlier this year, continues to do well.”

If you ever want to hear more about our company, or if you would like to ask any questions feel free to email us on info@bondscorporate.co.uk, or me directly on david@bondscorporate.co.uk

Until next time
David.

Welcome to our blog.

Hello everyone,

Welcome to our brand new Blog. I’m Dave, part of the Bonds Team. I have wanted to create a blog for the company for some time now, and finally managed to get other staff members interested this week…

We will be updating our blog hopefully a few times a week, keeping you up to date with what’s going on in the office, what we like around the web and what’s happening in Eastenders (sad I know)…

So just to recap this is what Bonds currently run: The House of Silk, The Chandelier Company, Bonds Plaster Mouldings and Bonds Clocks.

Right better get back to work,

Until next time,

Dave