B & V Group

Christmas Party!

2010-12-14T14:18:00.000Z

We had our Christmas party recently! Below is the photograph of that - it was a very enjoyable night.

You also will remember from the last post that we had a Wear it Pink day! Below is the promised photograph of everyone on the day!

From everyone at B & V we hope you have a very merry Christmas and a hapy new year!

Charity and Christmas!

2010-10-01T10:54:00.000+01:00

You may rememebr that last year B & V took part in Wear It Pink day for breast cancer! We are taking part again this year and we hope to be pinker than ever! Pictures will be taken and added to the blog - it's on 29th October.

We are also planning our Christmas Party at Towcester Racecourse. We also put up a photo of that night in the blog nearly a year ago now!

We don't know about you but this year seems to have just flown by! We're currently having lots of fun planning the run up to Christmas and the Marketing Department is starting to feel a bit festive... And it's only October!

EnviroFocus

2010-08-20T16:07:00.002+01:00

According to a publication recently released by the Carbon Trust, 67% of UK consumers are more likely to buy a product with a low carbon footprint. We know that this may not seem relevant to all of you at first, but it demonstrates how important our environmental impacts are and how they influence a buyer.

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol categorises emissions into three scopes:
Direct emissions, e.g. company vehicles
Indirect emissions, e.g. electricity, heat or steam
Other Indirect emissions, e.g. water consumption

Thanks to the B & V EnviroFocus range our customers can take steps towards reducing aspects of their carbon footprint and, in turn, generate savings:
Aquavision is a remote water temperature monitoring scheme that reduces an organisations carbon footprint by reducing man hours on site – fewer visits from a technician means less car emissions.
Clearstream is a water audit and recycling service that saves water.
Drum Re-Using is a service provided by B & V for empty chemical drums – we collect the drums from our customers to wash and reuse them. If they can’t be reused, they get recycled.

The UK has targets of reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 and every little helps. If every company takes steps like the ones offered by us above, it will make a huge difference.

The EnviroFocus range also offers safer chemicals and a paper reducing service. Being environmentally aware can save you time, money and increase efficiency. Continuing business doesn’t have to cost the earth.

For more information on the B & V EnviroFocus range, contact us now on 0844 372 7344.

Lots of News!

2010-07-30T16:10:00.000+01:00

Well we have had a very busy week...

Monday - Wednesday two members of our Technical team were in Germany visiting our new German distributors Inprona Water Treatment! The visit went very well and we hope this is the start of a long and happy partnership.

Sigrid, Dennis, Jill and Chris

Today is also 'Dress Down Friday' in the office - every last Friday a month from now on will be the B & V Dress Down Day. Each employee donates a pound to charity to take part!

We have also just been certified to ISO 14001 after our final audit on 20th and 21st July! This is great news for us and we are very happy with this achievement!

Safety Data Sheets

2010-07-22T17:02:00.001+01:00

As you may or may not be aware there are major changes in the legislation governing the production of safety data sheets for chemicals. This is to ensure all safety data sheets look the same throughout Europe. Kathy, one of our chemists, has been working hard over the last 6 months to update all of the B & V safety data sheets in line with this legislation. Considering that we have over 600 products, this is a mammoth task!

We now also have the ability to produce safety data sheets in a large number of foreign languages, which is extremely useful as our export of chemicals is expanding at a rapid rate!

You can be sure with B & V that all the data sheets we provide will be in line with current legislation - ensuring constant compliance with European and UK guidelines.

Aquavision!

2010-06-24T10:24:00.002+01:00

We have recently launched our EnviroFocus range here at B & V and one of the products in this range is Aquavision.
Thanks to a partnership with Radio-Tech and with their technology and experience, it has made it possible for B & V to launch Aquavision to the industry.
Aquavision is revolutionary remote water temperature monitoring technology. Results are taken automatically and can be viewed by site via the internet. Aquavision saves time, money and, above all, is environmentally friendly. In this day and age looking after our environment is the biggest job we have. Thanks to products like Aquavision we can make changes in our companies that reduce our carbon footprint (cars making a significant contribution to overall emissions of CO2 in he UK). For more information on Aquavision, please go to www.bvwater.co.uk/aquavision.
Below is the photograph of the Radio-Tech and B & V teams at the Partnership Toasting Ceremony.

Victoria (Radio-Tech), Shane (B & V), Craig (Radio-Tech) and Simon (B & V).

Sue Morrison Charity

2010-06-14T15:49:00.000+01:00

On Friday 14th June 2010 the Sue Morrison Charity held a Masquerade Ball at a Daventry Hotel. B & V donated a water filter, designed to fit to the copper pipe in your kitchen at home. The filter was auctioned off at £50 and helped towards the total amount raised of £5,000.

Sue Morrison was a close friend of a B & V employee. She sadly died of cancer nearly two years ago. Sue had always wanted to go to a masquerade ball so her daughter and friends arranged this night in her honor. The night was a huge success with almost every joining in - women in ball gowns and men in masks!

100% of the proceeds went to Breast Cancer Care.

Busy Busy!

2010-05-25T10:18:00.001+01:00

Well we have been busy bees here at B & V over the last few weeks!

We attended the Facilities Show 2010 between the 11th - 13th May. We had a wonderful time meeting customers and new faces!

Last week we also had our Ukrainian partners visiting. Aleksey, Igor, Vadim and Tayisiya from Technochimreagent. They had a wonderful time here and in London!

The Facilities Show 2010

2010-04-29T09:41:00.000+01:00

Not long now until the Facilities Show 2010, from the 11th - 13th May at the NEC.

B & V will be at Stand D5 meeting and greeting, with a few interesting props! It's not too late to get a pass, just go to www.thefacilitiesshow.com to sort out your day.

A hige amount of work has gone into preparing for the Facilities Show 2010 and we hope to meet a lot of new people! We're very keen to launch our new EnviroRange - we think it's great!

We hope to see a few familiar faces also so please come along to say hello!

Techical Meetings

2010-03-09T13:14:00.000Z

Today the second Technical Meeting was held at the B & V offices in the Technical Department. Recently we have been putting a lot of hard work into ensuring our Technical Team is used efficiently. We are lucky enough to have a number of highly qualified staff at B & V consisting of a Microbiologist, Chemists, Trainers and industry specialists and we feel it is important to be using the team to the best of its ability. The meetings focus on sharing knowledge, information and news and ensuring it is filtered down through the individual departments as well as ensuring R&D projects are tailored specifically to areas that will most benefit our customers. Below are some photos of Gwyn giving his presentation on Boiler Cleaning and Lay-Up Procedures.

Water Filter Installation Video

2010-02-26T13:46:00.000Z

Outtake 1!

Outtake 2!

Outtake 3!

Filters

2010-02-10T10:56:00.000Z

We managed not to leave it quite a month before we made a new update here this time!

On Friday Jill and Siobhan travelled to London to get a video shot of the water filters we're launching soon. We also needed photographs of the installation. It went really well and looks very professional! There will be two videos and as soon as they are edited we will post them on here... Very exciting! This means the website can be launched very soon...

2010-01-21T08:58:00.000Z

It's clearly been a very busy time for us here at B & V since the New Year, as this is the first blog post in over a month!

Last week we had some VIP's from Portugal over for a couple of days training. They are a very valued export customer of ours and we enjoyed having them here - we hope they enjoyed it too!

We also had our second ISO 14001 audit yesterday, meaning we are closer than ever to being accredited! This was on of our main aims for 2010, as reducing our carbon footprint is one of the main priorities for B & V this year. It is also important for us to offer our customers ways of reducing their carbon footprint also, and we are working very hard on innovative new ideas to make this possible. 2010 should be a very exiting year for new technologies regarding the environment!

Already this year we have had a baby boom - two members of staff have become proud parents already, welcoming Jacob Ive and Lucas Brabbins into the world :)

www.bvwater.co.uk

Let it Snow!

2009-12-18T09:51:00.004Z

Today it seems that all the nation is talking about is the snow. So we thought we'd join in!

Fortunately the snow here isn't that bad. Jill and I risked the slippery ground (and a skidding van) to take some photographs:

While we're all hoping for a very festive white Christmas, we do hope the snow doesn't get any worse so our customers still get their chemicals!

www.bvwater.co.uk

Christmas Party 2009!

2009-12-07T16:38:00.001Z

Friday 4th December 2009 saw the B & V Group Christmas Party at the Milton Keynes National Bowl.

Everyone had a lot of fun and, to remember the night, we had this lovely photograph taken. Unfortunately we couldn't find everyone to get them there but most of us are there!

From back to front, left to right: Andy Murray (Operations Manager), Paul Bracken (Technician), Dave Cartwright (Training Manager), Neil Willoughby (Consultant), Steve Bent (Southern Area Manager), Maurice Clarke (B & V Effluent Sales Director), Jen Topp (Admin Director), Chris Wederell (Technical Director), Beth Raynham (Admin), Jill Cooper (Microbiologist), Roger Perkins (Factory), Dave Cox (Factory Supervisor), Siobhan Moll (Marketing), Stephen Ede (Consultant), Steve Booker (Factory), Ria Rich (Admin), Chris Brady (Factory), Abby Pearce (Accounts), Alan Brookes (IT), Dave Rutt (Technician), Amy James (Admin), Tim Worthington (Northern Area Manager), Sam McElroy (Technician), Toni Parfitt (Admin), Gaz Cleaver (Cleaning Team), Mark Walsh (Cleaning Team) and Luke Chard (Cleaning Team).

We Met Jason Manford!

2009-11-30T14:37:00.000Z

International Trader of the Year 2009 Winners!

2009-11-27T09:00:00.002Z

We are thrilled to annouce that, last night at the Northamptonshire Business Awards, B & V won the International Trader of the Year 2009 award.

We are so proud of all the hard work that has gone into winning this award - every employee at B & V deserves a big pat on the back for their part played in helping us achieve this.

The award ceremony was brilliant, with comedy genius Jason Manford hosting. I was crying with laughter - he's a very funny man!

Congratulations everyone! Personally, I could not be more proud of us. All the hard work that every single person here puts in every day has its rewards, and this proves it's all worth it. We can, and deserve to, win awards like this. So well done everyone!

Watch this space for photographs :)

Mugs!

2009-11-24T14:18:00.000Z

We have had a delivery of B & V mugs today. Very exciting as we have now been able to replace all the mismatched mugs in the canteen to B & V ones! Our consultants will also be handing them out to all customers over the next month, too. Which brings us very nicely to our mug competition...

This year we're giving out mugs and, in return, are asking our customers to give us a competitors mug. The aim of the game is for our consultant to get the oldest or most unusual mug! The winning consultant and customer will get a bottle of champagne each! We're very excited to see some of the mugs we get through...!

On Thursday we will be attending the award ceromony of the Northamptonshire Business Excellence Awards 2009. We are up for International Trader of the Year 2009 and we all have our fingers crossed that we will win!

Wear it Pink

2009-10-30T13:38:00.001Z

Today was Wear it Pink day at B & V, in aid of Brest Cancer.We've so far raised £51!

Here's a picture of a few of the girls from the office in their pink outfits:

Siobhan, Jill, Kitty, Abby (!), Beth, Ria, Alice and Tony

Good News!

2009-10-22T14:19:00.000+01:00

We've just found out that B & V has made it to the finals of the 'International Trader of the Year' category in the Northamptonshire Business Excellence Awards 2009. We are very happy with the news! Fingers crossed we win, Award Ceromony is on the 26th November 2009 - http://www2.northamptontoday.co.uk/businessawards2009/

Hard Work!

2009-10-20T12:48:00.001+01:00

Well it appears keeping an up-to-date blog is much harder than it sounds!

I'll go back to talking about our water filter launch, as it's all got very exciting... The water filters are here, the boxes are here, we're waiting on the custom sellotape (which just amazed me), literature is done and the fitting instructions are finished. Which is why it seems so amazing that, from a Marketing Department that seems really quite organised, our poor, long-suffering web designer is still waiting for the content for the website... I have been promising to send it over "by the end of the week" for abour 3 weeks now... Honestly Richard, I'll send it today!

A source of a lot of excitement in the B & V world recently has been the Christmas Party. We started discussing ideas about 2 weeks ago and annouced the plan last week. It's all I've heard everyone talking about since. Those who are attending all appear to be unbelievably excited about it and with good reason. If I do say so myself, this is a fab idea - Milton Keynes Bowl, Moulin Rouge theme, Friday 4th December. I've been hearing a lot of "Couldn't you bring it forward?" since it was announced!

Why, I hear you ask, is everyone so excited about a Christmas Party? In truth, after a year that's been difficult for nearly every company in the world, it's an opportunity to let our hair down and relax. Here at B & V we're lucky to have an amazing bunch of people working here who all work really hard, and what better way to celebrate the end of a successful year?! Pictures WILL be posted, so watch this space....

It's Okay, We're All Fine

2009-10-09T10:35:00.000+01:00

Well it's been a week now since the toxic fire across the road and everything's back to normal. Well, everything was back to normal by the Monday actually, but we haven't updated the blog since. And of course, I wouldn't want anyone to panic about our wellbeing...

The reason we haven't updated our blog recently is because we have been amazingly busy. And we're not complaining about that! It's now Friday, and personally I'm enjoying the only moment of calm in my week...

Siobhan

This is Commitment!

2009-10-02T09:07:00.001+01:00

Hello all,

Well it's all kicking off in Daventry today. Last night at around 8pm a fire started at Wincanton on the Heartlands Business Park. Turns out that they recycle fridges/freezers etc. The smoke is still billowing 24hours later and, as you can imagine, is extremely toxic. Please see picture below - Jill and I are so committed to this blog that we braved the fumes!

Now, we don't like to brag, but...

2009-09-29T16:44:00.001+01:00

...Sometimes we can't help but talk about a good day.

Last week we held one of our Legionella Training Courses. Recently we've really been trying to make people aware that we hold these courses, as before it was a bit unknown! And last Thursday we finally saw the hard work pay off. The course not only had quite a few people on it, but prospective clients as well as customers. Which is great! We were really happy that the news of our courses had not only reached the ears of our customers, but also to those who may not even have heard of us before.

Because most of our recent Marketing has been to try and get the B & V name out there some more, last Thursday proved to us that we're doing that and more. And the even better news is that we're already getting lots of bookings for our November courses, so (fingers crossed) this wasn't a one-month-wonder!

It's always nice to have a bit of success so we thought we'd share this little story with everyone :)

Business Exhibition 2

2009-09-25T09:33:00.003+01:00

We attended the Business Exhibition yesterday at Northamptonshire County Cricket Club (as blogged about earlier in the week).

Although small, it was useful and we saw a few familiar faces! Below is the picture of our little stand.

www.bvwater.co.uk

New Signs

2009-09-23T11:39:00.000+01:00

For those of you who don't know, B & V recently rebranded. Most of the rebranding work has been completed (website, literature etc) and we're putting the final touches to everything. Yesterday we got the signs at the front of the building changed to show the new logo, and we wanted to show them off! A big thanks is due to Wendy at Illingworth Signs who designed, made and fitted the signs (Wendy does all of our signage).

Business Exhibition

2009-09-21T13:55:00.003+01:00

We love the Northamptonshire Chamber for many reasons, one of which is coming up this week:

The Business Exhibition is on at the Northamptonshire County Cricket Club on 24th September (this Thursday) from 9:30am to 2:30pm. We shall be exhibiting there all day and have a nice little giveaway prepared for those who visit our stand.

If you're in the area, come and visit!

http://www.northants-chamber.co.uk/

http://www.bvwater.co.uk/

Multitreat SHD

2009-09-16T11:35:00.000+01:00

Multitreat SHD, completed video:

How we got there!:

Legionella Outbreaks

2009-09-09T15:04:00.003+01:00

In this industry it's important that people understand how serious the threat of Legionnaires'disease can be. Which is why, from now on, when we hear of Legionella outbreaks we will report them on here.

"HSE has been forced to issue a warning to food preparation firms to ensure that they carry out regular checks to protect employees from Legionnaires' disease, after an outbreak at a Lancashire food processing plant.

Butchery firm _______ saw two of its employees catch the disease at its premises in Bamber Bridge in Preston. It pleaded giulty to a breach of Section 2(1) of the HSWA 1974 at Preston Crown Court for failing to protect its employees, and was fined £25,000 with £20,000 costs.

The first of the two cases was diagnosed in September 2006, and the second a week later in October. Following notification of the two cases, an outbreak comitee was formed, comprimising of the HSE, South Ribble Borough Council, Central Lancashire Primary Care Trust, the Heath Protection Unit and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals.

Significant levels of legionella were found in water samples taken from three locations: a pressure washer hose point, an apron wash shower point, and a pressure washer header tank. The tank supplied water to three washer hose points in the process area, and this system was used to clean away meat and fat debris.

A risk assessment has been made in 2001, setting out that simple checks should be carried out in the firm's domestic water system, and that control measures should be monitored and reviewed, but this did not happen.

HSE principle inspector Dorothy Shaw said that the two men 'were made seriously ill'.

'_______ failed to carry out simple checks on the hot and cold water system,' she added, 'as as result, many of its employees working at the site were potentially exposed to the legionella bacteria.'

'Any system containing water at temperatures between 20 and 45 degrees Celsius, and which may release an aerosol during operation or maintenance, presents a forseeable risk of exposure to legionella bacteria. Legionella bacteria can build up purpose-built water systems.'

During the investigation, the offending site was closed, and had its domestic water system drained, pumped through, chlorinated and disinfected. _______ has now ceased operating at the site.

In mitigation, _______ told the court that it had not cut corners to save money."

www.bvwater.co.uk

Filters

2009-09-08T12:25:00.001+01:00

I think this will be the first of many posts about our filters.

We are launching a new product - water filters. But with a difference. These filters are not 'filter jugs' or 'filter kettles'. You don't have to stand around for hours while a teacup worth of water gets filtered so you can have a cup of tea. This water comes straight out of a tap in your kitchen. Which we thought was pretty cool.

It's a big decision for us, as we'll be selling to end-user for the first time. We are dipping a toe in the merky waters of end-user selling after 32 years of B-2-B. Scary! We're pretty confident though, and with our web-designer working on a flashy new website and me figuring out the best way to get the huge benefits of having one of theses filters out there, I think we've got it covered for now!

They'll be sold under 'B & V Water Filters' and the plan is to make them available to buy straight from the website... Bring on learning how to manage an e-Commerce site! It's all go!

Launch date is before the end of October. Which means we have an awful lot of work to do for the next few weeks!

Siobhan

www.bvwater.co.uk

0844 372 7344

2009-09-02T10:31:00.000+01:00

Today B & V's new telephone number was born... As were the shiny new phones everyone in the office got (please see picture below)! Our new 0844 number means that everyone in the office now gets their own direct dial. Before, when we had the 01327 number (which, by the way, WILL still work) we didn't have direct dials for anyone, so this will hopefully make things more personal and efficient. People won't always have to be directed through a switchboard anymore!

Siobhan

Squidoo

2009-08-27T16:52:00.002+01:00

Just a quick note to say that we have posted our first ever 'lens' on Squidoo...

www.squidoo.com/bvgroup

Our First Post

2009-08-26T16:36:00.001+01:00

Hello!

Well, please bear with me on this blogging thing - this is my first post... ever (personally and on behalf of B & V)! We (Jill and I - who make up the entire Marketing Department here) have fought the blogging bug for months now and have finally buckled under the pressure (read on to find out how we were finally persuaded!). Blogs seems to have exploded, and everyone who is anyone is talking about them. We're not usually ones to fall behind and so have decided to try everything... Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Squidoo... If nothing else comes from all this, at least I'll have had a lot of practise in talking about B & V!

Talking of talking, I plan to have a word with our lovely web designer (check out www.hunterdesign.co.uk) to try and get this blog somehow attached to our website... At the present time I feel I'm writing to no one! I'm not sure if I'm grateful or not for that at the moment as I'm not entirely sure what people will want to read. At the moment I have the following vision for this little space - videos (if we can find a single person out of the 73 or so employed by B & V who isn't camera shy, which is proving far more difficult than I ever would have expected... Having said that, I was the first person to say "No."), pictures and updates of events, products and interesting things that happen. I aim to update this every couple of days. I'm not sure if that's too often or not, but I'll soon find out! The first few of these might be absolute rubbish - experimenting is a dangerous business, I think.

I'll take this opportunity to explain what gave us the final push into the blogging world....

Jill and I regularly attend Business Link eBusiness Club training events. For those of you who do not have the pleasure of knowing what these are, I will explain briefly. They are free events funded by the East Midlands Development Agency and the EU and ran by Business Link and (I think) the Chamber of Commerce. Put simply, they are amazing for small and medium businesses. Jill and I have been blown away by the quality of these events and have taken so much away every time. After each one I walk out the room and am itching to get back in front of my computer to implement all the ideas I've had after attending one. We'd be light-years behind if not for them. Which is why we were very upset (and somewhat alarmed) to learn that they might be coming to an end. If you'd like to support the continuation of the eBusiness Club Events please sign the petition on Susan Hallam's website - http://www.shcl.co.uk/blog/2009/07/east-midlands-ebusiness-club-funding.html.

Back to the point, however. Today we attended the What Works On the Web breakfast briefing in Northampton, hosted by Susan Hallam, who we were hugely impressed with. She gave everyone 60 tips in 60 minutes, and was so persuasive, honest and genuinely nice that when she said the words "blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Squidoo, LinkedIn", we happily nodded our heads, came back to the office and did exactly what she said.

Which is why you can now find us in lots of places! If you're on any of the above, please take a look at our profiles or accounts and, if you're even remotely interested in anything we have to say, add us/subscribe/whatever else it is that these sites like you to do. Also, if anyone is an experienced blogger, tips and tricks would be appreciated!

That's it for now!

Siobhan

http://www.bvwater.co.uk/news.php?id=18