Bisley, the UK’s largest manufacturer of office furniture, has announced the appointment of John Atkin (pictured) as Financial Director. John steps in to the shoes of one of Bisley’s longest serving employees, Bill Strang, who retires after 35 years with the company.

Howard Smith Paper Group (HSPG) has announced the appointment of Jonathan Tame (pictured) to its Strategic Business Development (SBD) team, adding his environmental expertise to HSP’s customer value proposition.

The James McNaughton Group held a customer quiz night on September 27th at the Holiday Inn in Ipswich, which over 100 customers attended. On offer were some fantastic prizes including cases of wine, digital set top boxes and of course the coveted winner’s trophy.

Muratec, the multifunction specialist company, has appointed Crowson & Ward as an authorised dealer partner for the Muratec range of fax machines and multifunctionals. Based in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, Crowson & Ward is a family run business that celebrated its 20th anniversary of trading in October 2007.

Leading workplace interiors specialist breathegroup has strengthened its senior management staff with the promotion of Arthur Lamb (pictured) to the position of Sales Director.

Brother UK and Bostik are among the latest big name exhibitors confirmed for next April’s Stationery & Office Products Show. Other new signings include BlueSky Systems Solutions, Glue Dots International, Crafters Companion, Ampac Security Products, Falcon International Bags, Gripping Stuff International, Nestle Food Services and Marking World.

The greetings cards industry appears confident that any risk from electronic greetings is minimal, although it should, perhaps, be mindful of the fact that younger consumers have increased their usage of these forms of greetings cards in lieu of the traditional card.

J.A. Magson, Britain’s largest independent distributor of toys, stationery and greeting cards, has announced the appointment of Steve Benger (pictured) as Chief Executive Officer.

The Annual BOSS Industry Awards, held on Thursday, October 25th, at the Royal Lancaster Hotel was a great success.The evening was attended by over 600 guests who enjoyed a wonderful four course meal and entertainment by celebrity host Jo Caulfield.

Smead Desk & Office Accessories add colour and style to your office and at the same time organise your work. They come in a stunning variety of designs, colours and materials such as plastic, acrylic, metal and wire mesh.

Fire-fighters understand the demands of being on call so it is not surprising they choose to communicate with each other via a Promaxx business card, which has the flexibility to be produced exactly when needed.

Rapesco leads the way in stapling machine and hole punch manufacturing, with innovative and patented engineering designs and passionate styling. This is shown in one of the latest additions to the Rapesco product range with the Premium P20 Shimma Stapler and P30 Punch Box Set.

The “X5” staplers are the latest addition to a more modern and dynamic product assortment from Rapesco. X5 is the new programme of “power assisted” stapling machines providing 5kg of power for every 1kg of pressure used to activate the stapling machine.

Arjowiggins, the world’s leading manufacturer of creative high-tech materials and papers, announces that Conqueror is now Europe’s first CarbonNeutral® fine paper brand and that it will only use pulp sourced from FSC certified sources across the entire range. As the UK’s leading business communications brand, the move will significantly reduce the environmental impact of the wider UK paper industry.

The Report range of products are manufactured in Brazil by Suzano Pulp & Paper. A company who have achieved certification in social and environmental standards recognised worldwide. Report Paper products are FSC certified to ensure that pulp used in its production comes from properly managed sustainable forests.

This year’s 2008 Castelli collection sees the introduction of the 100 per cent recyclable “Echo” diary and notebook range to accommodate the ever increasing demand from customers to increase “green” initiatives.

Following growing demand for environmentally responsible ranges, the James McNaughton Group has added FSC approved virgin fibre content to its Challenger Offset range.

Following the recent launch of Bisley’s “Communicating Carbon” campaign Bisley can now calculate the carbon footprint of every one of its range of steel storage units - they wanted to find out just how important carbon footprint and “green” issues are to the interior design and office furniture industry. Surveying a selection of architects, specifiers and dealers, Bisley asked a number of thought-provoking questions to see just how environmentally aware we actually are.

Penkeths, a one-stop supplier of office supplies, has undertaken a “practice what you preach” approach to environmental matters and this has included a major push to promote initiative, a 100 per cent recycled paper from PaperCo.

On December 12th and 13th 2007, the NEC in Birmingham will again play host to SOS, the office products show facilitated by Spicers and the biggest event of the OP industry calendar.With world famous motivational speakers now confirmed, SOS 2007 promises to be the best ever SOS.

Gresham, one of the UK’s major players in the office and leisure furniture markets, are launching several new seating ranges.

Brabantia has introduced a stylish new waste disposal solution - the open top bin.
The open top bin has a generous opening which reduces the possibility of spillages and allows waste to be deposited with ease without the need to open a lid.

Albion’s Spynamics range of office chairs, which provides an effective ergonomic solution to back pain in the workplace, is enjoying rapidly growing sales and praise from customers. Specially developed by Albion Chairs in conjunction with osteopath Stephen Green, Spynamics ensures each different area of the spine receives optimum support for added comfort.

bti Computer Systems, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of computer and environment monitoring solutions, has introduced Room Alert. Costing from just £300, it provides an affordable monitoring solution for business critical IT systems used by smaller organisations or in departmental applications.

A brand new range of Vds tested and approved safes, the units are designed to provide the customer with a competitively priced , fully certified safe tested at one of Europe’s leading test houses.

AF International, specialist suppliers of ICT cleaning products to the office market, are exhibiting their new range of cleaning products at the SOS show held at the NEC, Birmingham, on December 12th and 13th 2007. This range is the only range of branded cleaning products to appear in the 2008 Spicers catalogue.

In the run-up to the winter season, leading electrical manufacturer Micromark announces the launch of several new portable heaters for the domestic and office markets. Offering excellent value for money, the three new portable heaters are available now and are an update to Micromark’s well respected heating portfolio in time for the predicted cold snap.

Fellowes, a global leader in the manufacturing, distribution and marketing of office products, has announced that they are to exhibit at Paperworld 2008 in Frankfurt, Europe’s leading office products show.

Savory Paper, part of leading national merchant The Howard Smith Paper Group (HSPG), enjoyed a successful stand partnership with Mitsubishi HiTec Paper and Crown Van Gelder at this year’s Print for Business exhibition.

Following the success of this year’s Channel Expo the event organiser Incisive Media has announced the dates for Channel Expo 2008. This is scheduled for Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd May 2008 and will take place in Hall 19 at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. The exhibition is the only event that brings the entire Channel under one roof, showcasing the UK’s most diverse range of new products and services for the reseller community, encompassing hardware, applications, networking, storage and peripherals.

Labelexpo Europe 2007, which took place on September 26th to 29th in Brussels, surpassed all its records this year, in terms of visitors, exhibitors and equipment sales. This makes Labelexpo Europe 2007 the largest and most successful label event ever to have taken place.

Create hand-made greeting cards and gift tags by using Pentel’s fabulous and popular metallic gel pens. The silver, gold and white gel ink works really well on dark paper. However, if you can only get light coloured paper, then the extensive range includes plenty of other coloured gel pens for the festive season. Purple and frosty blues are always a favourite!

Pictured at London Zoo is “BLU-TACK Blu-ey” (leg span a massive FOUR feet, weight over 200kg), an extremely large and scary version of the common house spider – dwarfing “Maggie”, the zoo’s giant Mexican Red-Kneed bird-eating spider (leg span, a massive six inches).