THE SITUATION
As part of our product and service offering to National Trust, we are required to stock and distribute items to a property portfolio of 100 locations across England and Wales.
In exchange for National Trust awarding us more business, we have agreed upon a ‘gain-share’ model which pays back and contributes to sustainably focused programmes across their organisation. Using this approach, we are exploring additional items and product groups that we can support, particularly in relation to printed materials.
ACTION
Annual spend has grown steadily over the years (to £0.75m per annum today) and now extends to the provision of General Office Supplies (GOS), hygiene, catering and bespoke items including stock and distribution.
We recently (September 2022) secured a major initiative with National Trust to support their fund-raising efforts, which required us to source, stock and distribute a range of ‘Fundraising Enamel Pin Badges’ (a range specific to the various seasons and a child-friendly dinosaur version without a pin) which they could then sell on to their visitor/membership communities.
In recent times, we have been through a number of significant challenges as an Organisation and this has affected the service levels we have been able to provide to National Trust, however to their credit, they have stood firm by us and together we have worked through the issues to restore the service to the levels expected.
OUTCOME
Recent initiatives include us hosting an Environmental Day (attended by our Head of Sustainability) targeted at key stakeholders across National Trust and focused upon us promoting our sustainability credentials aligned to theirs, acting as a fantastic forum to help us build our network and influence with them, whilst at the same time creating joint momentum, highlighting other opportunities i.e printed stationery (Business cards, etc), seasonal catalogue items i.e Christmas lights (enduring colours to suit any event/season) for their locations and paving the way for an additional Environmental day to be held in June.
‘WE ARE REQUIRED TO STOCK AND DISTRIBUTE ITEMS TO A PROPERTY PORTFOLIO OF 100 LOCATIONS ACROSS ENGLAND AND WALES’.
