And I figured right. I got in touch and went to see Workhouse MD Mark Jones in his offices in delightful rural Lancashire and was totally impressed by the Workhouse set up. If workhouses conjure up dark images of starving children begging for more, nothing could be further from the truth as the bright design studio was staffed by a happy team of young people working with the very latest technology. I immediately warmed to the Workhouse set up and was confident that they had the skill to take Instanta further.
And the rest, as they say, is history. Our 2008 brochure won plenty of plaudits from our customers and would be hard to match but Workhouse pulled out all the stops again last year and, as I leave the company, I feel that our latest brochure (above)is our best ever. Considering that Instanta is a British manufacturer and that the country has just been through the worst recession in living memory I have to thank Workhouse for their help in providing us with the sales and promotional material necessary to weather that storm and sail through with an increase in sales that went against the industry trend.
They are not a company to rest upon their laurels and have invested heavily in developing their business and now have a purpose built photographic studio and an excellent in house photographer. Their repertoire extends far beyond sales brochures as you can see from their last year's Xmas video which ends today's blog and captures the company's sense of humour perfectly.
It's very rare for me to enthuse so effusively about a company but it is extremely rare to come across a company that has values that are close to my heart. In the end all business has to be about profit, without it the country would grind to a halt, but other things are important too such as ensuring that clients and staff are valued equally. I feel that, in running their business, Mark and his wife Nita have applied similar principles to those used by us here at Instanta. It has worked for us and it works for them and I am happy to recommend them strongly. Sharing many interests and tastes it is no surprise that we have become firm friends away from the working environment and we have enjoyed dining out with Mark and Nita at several excellent North West establishments and are looking forward to meeting up with them again in a couple of weeks.
I don't share Mark's passion for rugby which saw him and Nita flying to South Africa to follow the British Lions last year and has made him a near ever present at Wales Rugby internationals but he also loves cricket and even goes to watch Blackburn Rovers from time to time (although whether that marks him out as a football enthusiast or merely a masochist is open to question).Mark and Nita, who, like Marion, does a hard job in credit control amongst many other things, have two sons Ben and Tom. Ben, (front) who works at Workhouse is just off to Australia on a sabbatical, whilst Tom has opened an excellent wine shop in nearby Whalley named, appropriately, The Whalley Wine Shop. It stocks an excellent range of wines and a big variety of other drinks and is well worth a short detour when you travel along the A59.
Before finishing with that video, a quick word about Steve Gerrard. I have been highly critical of Stevie G over the last few years. It's not that I don't think he's a good player, his ability has always been beyond doubt. It's just that I felt that he had become a scowling prima donna who, instead of inspiring inferior players with his captaincy and leadership, treated them with contempt and limited Liverpool's performances by not involving them in the play. Last night he rose above that, played as part of the team and inspired Liverpool to a win that at half time looked extremely unlikely. Hat's off to him. But come on Steve, can we please see more smiles and less scowling. And supporters, whilst being able to pass the ball forty yards may well be a fine asset what has being big and f******g hard got to do with it?
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