IT’S SILVER

DAMART’SGLOBAL CHALLENGE

Damart joins the largest global initiative EVER as we

take on the world

The results are revealed!

Fighting fit for a Healthy Heart earns Damart Silver Award

Issue 9 Spring 2010

CUSTOMER SURVEY

CELEBS WEAR DAMART

News, views & reviews - all the latest from Damart www.damart.co.uk

We are well into trading the summer season now and what

a season it is turning out to be! We are on track to achieve our biggest demand and profit number for a Spring / Summer season ever! Our customers have loved our product, promotions and excellent

customer service. We are also recruiting new customers at over 20 per cent of budget, ensuring that our success will continue into the AW10 season. A fantastic success story that we can all be very proud of!

THE PRODUCT DIVISION

Now, more about the Product Division. You all know about New Vision and how the Group has changed the way it sources and photographs all of our products centrally at Group headquarters in France. On Floor 5 at Bingley you will find my teams - the Product

Selection, Merchandising and Catalogue creative teams. We felt that with a new start and way of working that we needed a new name. We ran a competition to find our new identity – and the Product Division was born! If you would like to find out more about what we do, the fabulous products we sell or how we

select those lovely models you see in the catalogues, pop into Floor 5, we are always happy to talk!

AWARD WINNING TEAMS

May is also all about us and Healthy Heart. Congratulations to everyone who helped us to win our Silver Award. The GCC challenge that starts on May 20th should be a big step towards our Gold Award.

Apologies for the bad joke, but to all the 35 teams that have signed up for the 10,000 steps per day challenge – good luck!

If you have any energy left, inside you’ll find details on our Pilates and legs, bums and tums classes too.

ANNUAL PINK VEST CAMPAIGN

It’s also the time of year when we start to plan our annual thermal Pink Vest campaign. This year, singing sensation Beverly Knight has agreed to front our launch to help raise money for Breast Cancer awareness month in October. We passed the £100,000 mark raised last year, and this year’s product is our favourite to date. Beverly knows and loves our products, and thanked Damart for getting her through this year’s cold and snowy winter. Look out for Marketing Director John Bottomley helping Beverly at the recent photo shoot – It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it!

Welcometo the springissue of

TeamSpirit

Damart Team Spirit

Spring 2010

Editors:

Rachel Barker

Cicada Communications

Helen Laura Taylor

Geraldine Vernon

Mark Scurr

Contributors:

Lynn Cordall

MCG PR

Neil Hirst

Steve Taylor

John Bottomley

Tim Clough

Nikki Sutton

Phil Myerscough

Emma Hardcastle

The Social Squad

If you have a story for Team Spirit, email your ideas to rachel@cicada-comms.com

or

hltaylor@damart.com

The EditorialTeam

2 DAMART TEAMSPIRIT

Hello everyone! For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Lynn Cordall and I represent the Product Division on the Damart UK Board of Directors. Welcome to TeamSpirit.

May is also all about us and Healthy Heart. Congratulations to everyone who

helped us to win our Silver Award.

WELCOME

Lynn Cordall, Product Division

We have put forward 35 teams for the challenge aimed at helping us all become more active. We’ve also included your participation in our bid to be awarded the prestigious Healthy Heart Gold Award.

At our launch event on the 20th May we will be cheered on by supporters from the Bradford Bulls and Heart Research UK as we begin our virtual walk around the world.

Businesses from across the UK including blue chip organisations such as Nestle, Unilever, Tesco and Cadbury are also taking part. Find out more atwww.gettheworldmoving.com™.

Teams of seven aim to each walk at

least 10,000 steps a day, recording their

individual step counts, which are then

tallied by the team captains into a daily

team total. The steps are then plotted on

the GCC website to complete a virtual

walk around the world.

Giant global maps will be displayed in the

Bingley and Steeton canteens, showing

a weekly update of each team’s global

location and step count. Also look out for

tips on how to increase your step count

and team incentives and prizes.

Lasting for 16 weeks, participants can

virtually interact with each new location

along their journey to experience different

cultures along the route.

For every one of you who signs up,

a school child has also been granted a

place on the challenge for free. The

Global Children’s Challenge engages

school children at a classroom level

by measuring step count on a GCC

pedometer.

Damart takes on theGLOBAL CHALLENGE

The Challenge

3 DAMART TEAMSPIRIT

Congratulations to the hundreds of you who signed up to take part in the Global Corporate Challenge.

feature

ww

w.g

etth

ewor

ldm

ovin

g.c

om™

.

4 DAMART TEAMSPIRIT

How satisfied are you with the speed of delivery?

How satisfied are you with the following?

Would you recommend Damart to your friends?

The results of our customer surveys are in…

And what a great job you’re all doing!

F ollowing an international customer services conference last year, which Neil Hirst (Contact Centre Manager) and Jeanette Askin (Head

of Customer Services) attended, we decided to ask customers for their views about the business, including our product range, the speed of its delivery and the overall service they received.

Here are the results:

Damart GetsThumbs Up From Customers

Product Range

Very Satisfied

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500

Information aboutthe products

Appeal and styleof the products

Layout ofthe catalogue

Quality ofthe products

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very Dissatisfied

29.0% 58.6% 2.1%

32.2% 65.0% 2.7%

40.4% 57.1% 2.2%

33.7% 64.1% 2.0%

40.4% 58.4% 1.0%

33.2%

2.3%0.3%

1.4%

63.1%

Very Satisfied

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very Dissatisfied

No Response

1200

1000

800

600

400

200

010 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

45.8%

17.0%

7.9%

Customers rated whether they would recommend us to a friendon a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the highest)

HIGH LOW

7.9%6.5%

4.9%

2.1% 2.2%1.3%

4.5%

Our ‘Love Your Heart’ campaign has raised over £10,000 to date for Heart Research UK.

In 2009, with the help of soap star Sarah Jayne Dunn, who modeled the ‘Love Your Heart’ t-shirt, we raised cash and awareness of the local charity which helps fund vital research into heart disease prevention, treatment and cure.

Barbara Harpham, the national director of Heart Research UK, said: “To have Damart’s support is fabulous. Heart disease touches so many people’s lives, some people are born with it and others are diagnosed later in life when it is too late.

There are in fact around 270,000 heart attacks in the UK every year – that’s one every

two minutes - and 1.6million people live with heart disease everyday.

The money raised from this campaign will help towards more improved treatment and techniques funded by Heart Research UK.”

Heart In The Right Place

5 DAMART TEAMSPIRIT

And your hard work is paying off as we have become the first company in

Bradford to be awarded the Healthy Heart Campaign’s Silver Mark.

H R Manager Helen Taylor said: “We have been delighted with how the campaign has gone so far and are positive

that more and more staff will get involved. The Silver Award shows how dedicated staff are to leading healthier lifestyles and achieving the ultimate Gold Award, which we already have our sights set on.”

We were awarded the Bronze Mark last year and thanks to the Healthy Heart team more initiatives and activities have

been introduced. The series of expert-led Pilates and ‘Bums and Tums’ classes held during lunch break, have been so popular, we are now on our third series.

Further classes and schemes will be announced shortly so keep your eyes peeled.

Next stop…Gold!

WE’VE GOT OUR HANDS ON THE

SILVERAs we’ve discovered in recent issues of Team Spirit, many of you

have taken the Healthy Heart Challenge to your hearts, literally.

The Silver Award

shows how

dedicated our staff

are to leading

healthier lifestyles.

We have already

got our sights set on

the ultimate Gold

Award.

healthy heart

Julie Morrow, Laura North and John Bottomley with instructor Jenny Saville leading the way in Pilates.

Over the Easter Bank holiday, the IS and Logistics teams successfully upgraded our warehouse stock management system ‘Reflex’ from version 6 to version 7.

This is the first time Reflex has been upgraded since its implementation in 2007. The

system is now aligned with the rest of the Damartex Group.

With ‘Planning for Success’ the project team’s motto, the upgrade followed the same successful ICM project framework as IPC in December 2009 and was completed a day ahead of schedule.

ReflexGets An Upgrade

One way we do this is through testing. Every season we conduct

promotional creative tests in order to effectively beat the ‘banker’ promotion in terms of the demand it generates. A tried and tested successful promotion becomes known as a ‘banker’ and sets a benchmark. Any test that outperforms a ‘banker’ will become a banker in a future campaign.

We have introduced a weekly ‘new creative’ review meeting allowing the team to discuss, debate and critique new promotional ideas.

Polly Whitaker (Direct Marketing Designer) said:“The new creative review sessions have been really beneficial as they’ve enabled us all to share our opinions and experience to help shape the direction of a new promotion right from day one.”

These sessions, along with other improvements, have increased our success rate for creative tests from 35 per cent to 50 per cent in SS10.

Trish O’Connor (Direct Marketing Senior Designer) said: “We’ve been absolutely

delighted with the results we’ve seen, as every winning test that we generate gives Damart more security in the future”

Congratulations to the team effort from the Sales Promotion Team, the Studio Team and the Promotional print team.

Creative DevelopmentHelps Damart Success

Plans are underway for our 2010 Pink Vest, sales of which have raised over £100,000 for Breast Cancer Campaign in eight years.

Beverly Knight is this year’s celebrity supporter and will be modelling our new hot pink design.

Watch out for more news as we go behind the scenes with Beverley in the next issue!

Hot Pink is the Colour for 2010

6 DAMART TEAMSPIRIT

Did you know that around 50 per cent of our sales comes from the promotional packs that our marketing team

designs and sends out to customers with catalogues.

Selecting the best promotions for each campaign is essential.

Dan Martin, Polly Whitaker, Tim Clough, Michala Swinden, Trish O’Connor, Claire Birch, Ian Hopper, Andy Beadle, Jo Eglin and Lolly Tebbs (not available for the shoot).

Mrs Lawson, 72, has been a loyal Damart customer since 2003. When she realised she had won she thought it was a joke. She said: “I’m so shocked; I never expected it to be me. It’s always someone else that wins.”

Mrs Lawson (above centre) was presented with the cheque alongside her husband and son, by (left to right) Lolly

Tebbs (Marketing), Tim Clough (Marketing), Angela Burton (Data Entry) and Annette Wailes (Contact Centre).

The prize draw takes place on 31 December every year, with the winner randomly picked from the list of customers who have entered the competition throughtout the year.

Damart Customer Wins Big

We have been showcasing our SS10 collection to over 20 key fashion journalists.

Meeting with magazines like Prima, Woman & Home, Real People, Woman’s Weekly, That’s Life and Essentials, we revealed some of the most popular pieces from the collection, including the stripe blazer, floral blouse and Shape Shop underwear.Look out for our designs in upcoming fashion features!

Publicising Our Wares

As sponsors of the Bradford Bulls Rugby League team we decided we couldn’t let the Australian WAGS freeze in our bitter winter climate!

Just after touching down at Leeds-Bradford airport we gave

Ashley Kearney, Suyin Menzies and Jessica L’Estrange a set of our famous thermals range each. After leaving the sunnier climes of Sydney, Australia to join their partners in the UK, they were extremely grateful for these!

Damart Kits Out the Glamorous WAGS

NEWS

7 DAMART TEAMSPIRIT

Our 2009 customer prize draw saw Mrs Pamela Lawson from Hertfordshire scoop a cheque for £50,000.

WAGS model the thermals with John Bottomley and Tim Clough

As part of our ongoing commitment to improving employee benefits, we are pleased to offer the Discount Directory. Check out Damartnet for details of the discounts available to Damart employees. Just some of the local amenities that offer discounts to Damart staff are JD Wetherspoons, Foundry Hill and Mirror Mirror.

TRAINING NEWSNeil Hirst, Tim Clough, Adele Upton, Mark Dooley and Nick Connor recently completed an intensive leadership course while Rob Moore, Phil Shaw, George Cook and Helen Taylor have undertaken management development training.

Well done to everyone who took part for their hard work!

NVQ SUCCESSWell done to Bev Longley, Stephen Carter, Leanne Mawson, Ruth Emmott, Maureen Shutt and Edgar Stolers who have successfully completed a Level 2 NVQ qualification in Team Leading.

Follow us on twitter

For those with the digital know-how Damart now

has a profile on social networking site twitter.

The site allows us to keep our followers posted on

the upcoming trends, new season collections and the

latest innovative pieces through live news updates.

If you’d be interested in following our tweets register

at www.twitter.com and follow Damart_uk

The Social Events team arrange our fantastic Christmas parties, social and theatre trips.

Some of the fabulous upcoming events include Dancing Queen, Annie and Hairspray and for those who do like to be beside the seaside, the team are

planning a trip to Blackpool on 31 July to see the Hot Ice show.

For more information please,

visit Damartnet Social Page or

alternatively email the team

socialeventsteamuk@damart.com

Damart Gets Social

DISCOUNT DIRECTORY

Christine Miller, a Sales Advisor in our Southend shop, recently travelled to London to watch Strictly Come Dancing Live!Christine won the tickets at last year’s Big Event. She attended the show at Wembley Arena as a VIP guest of dancer Kristina Rihanoff and even met Kristina during the interval. More great prizes will be on offer at this year’s Big Event. Watch out for how you can enter.Save the date: 1st October 2010

Strictly Come Dancing Winner

NOTICEBOARD

8 DAMART TEAMSPIRIT

The Social Events team have been working hard to bring some entertainment delights to you.

TALENT AT DAMART

Congratulations to Emma Hardcastle from the Contact Centre. Emma has just had her first novel published, called The Soul Sanctuary.

Josephine never expected to wind up in the office of an interfering and rather dull psychiatrist. She’s confused, lonely and has supposedly witnessed her mother’s kidnapping. The only problem is, she doesn’t remember a thing.....

The novel is available for sale through www.erhardcastle.com