Piece in The Daily Telegraph

We are pleased to report that we have a piece in The Daily Telegraph today about our tall children story. Click Here The good news is that we have some national coverage, but as is ever the case, the journalist only covered the bits that he wanted which means that part of the story (unfair VAT and Schoolwear members who stock all sizes all year around) was somewhat cut short.

 For your information the full quotation from our Chairman which was supplied was:

 ”This year in particular we have seen a huge range in sizes as children appear to be getting either larger or often slimmer and taller. This is something we rarely saw twenty years ago. Our members aim to stock all these sizes and find themselves regularly charging VAT on uniform for schoolchildren as young as 10 or 11 because they do not fit the norm and are deemed to be too large or too tall for their age”. 

The Telegraph had specifically asked us for a stockist list to go with the article and we would like to thank all the members who agreed at short notice to be part of that list. In particular Mark Stevenson of Stevenson’s in St Albans who was interviewed by The Telegraph.

These things often work slowly and we would hope that even though this journalist only used part of the information supplied we may find that he picks up more of our stories in the future so we will continue to play the long game.

Fitter Schools event – Sponsorship Opportunity

 The Fitter Schools Game Legacy Event 2010 is seeking sponsors to provide items such as food and drink, sports kit, medals and transport for school children across London.

 This will provide the opportunity to connect your brand with London schools, teachers, primary schools and the local community. 

The event is expected to have over 600 attendees from these groups.

For more information please email lewis.stagnetto@thespaway.com with your area of interest.

Chairman’s Report

I am delighted to report that the SA has continued to make some remarkable progress. Hopefully you will have seen some of this over the last year, but I will attempt to give you a Summary of the advances we have made.

Communication The Marketing Team have done a wonderful job in ensuring there is regular contact with Members, with virtually no financial resource. There have been numerous email Newsletters, the Annual Survey and reports on meetings with the DCSF, NCPTA and the NGA. They have just completed the first stage of our letters to Schools initiative, telling Schools about the SA and why they need to ask their Uniform Supplier if they are a Member. It will eventually become more difficult to talk to Schools as a non-member. The Marketing Team have almost completed the next stage of the SA Website development, which will vastly improve our ability to keep updating and developing this great communication tool. Please have a look at the difference, it’s amazing! www.schoolwearassociation.co.uk

Media With the continued help of The SPA Way, we have built up a really effective contact list with most of the media block. The SA can respond very quickly and positively to almost any situation. Although we are still in the hands of journalists and editors as to whether our views or responses are included, or correctly reported. We are developing a more proactive approach, where we send them stories and information. The best example of this in 2009 was the Clip on Tie story, which ran in a number of newspapers and online and which got tremendous coverage. Members of the Committee appeared on a number of Radio and early morning TV slots, always advocating the benefits of School Specific Uniform.

Agencies The SA has had meetings with numerous MPs and MEPs, in the course of promoting both the Association and educating the various bodies, so they more clearly understand how the supply chain functions, what a great job is done in ensuring year round availability and that every child, whatever size, is catered for, plus some of the difficulties experienced by Members. This is all part of a coordinated approach with various Agencies, to get the message across and influence policy going forward. One of our Goals is to have the “expensive sole supplier” terminology removed from the next guidelines to Schools. Although it is an extremely difficult task to find the common ground and get the right people at a meeting and in agreement.

I would like to thank all the various volunteers, AIS for all their support, our fantastic Patrons, and particularly Gill Griffin-Phipps, our Vice Chair.

David H Burgess

AGM meeting

We had a very positive meeting today lots of people including several new members all of whom played a part and I think left impressed with what the SA is doing.

Sorry to hear Rebecca from the SPA way is moving on. She really has been instrumental in us building relationships and making connections with the people who matter in the government.

Good to hear we have our first sponsor for the fundraising night and to see such a positive response to the SA Annual Member Survey.

Stand with the SA

Stand with the SA

Many of you will have seen the news this month that Tesco is planning to launch a Schoolwear embroidery service which they believe will enable them to provide school-specific uniform to local schools.  Some schools have already signed up to it.

I would imagine that you, like us, find this news extremely disturbing.

We have looked into Tesco’s plans, which are fairly vague at the moment. We are currently compiling as much information about this as possible to ensure our members are kept updated on this issue. An action sheet is being prepared for SA members, to help them with this challenge.

While we are aware that other large multinational retailers have in the past attempted school-specific uniform without success, we feel it would be foolish to assume that this will be the case once again.  With this in mind we are building a strategy to counter this, the latest threat to your market.

As I have said many times before, the only way we can keep up the momentum of the press and lobbying campaigns is by having a strong voice representative of the industry.  The more members we have, the more we can do and the more influence we can have. Now, more than ever, is the time to stand up and be counted

If you are not a member it is essential that you join The Schoolwear Association today. If you are due to renew your membership, please do so today. We invite you to join us as a guest at the AGM on 25th March at AIS in Solihull .  You will have the opportunity to voice any concerns you have about the industry and ask questions about the programmes we have running with both the media and with the various political parties and other influential groups. There has never been a more important time to be a member of the Schoolwear Association

Many of you will have seen the news this month that Tesco is planning to launch a Schoolwear embroidery service which they believe will enable them to provide school-specific uniform to local schools.  Some schools have already signed up to it.I would imagine that you, like us, find this news extremely disturbing.  We have looked into Tesco’s plans, which are fairly vague at the moment. We are currently compiling as much information about this as possible to ensure our members are kept updated on this issue. An action sheet is being prepared for SA members, to help them with this challenge.While we are aware that other large multinational retailers have in the past attempted school-specific uniform without success, we feel it would be foolish to assume that this will be the case once again.  With this in mind we are building a strategy to counter this, the latest threat to your market.

SA Annual Survey – Have you taken part?

The 2010 online survey can be found here. Responses are required by 25th March. The results will give the SA committee the information the Government require and the media would like. Last year we had 78 responses this year we need 100+.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SA-AnnualSurvey

Schoolwear Association Now on FaceBook

If you or your business has a FaceBook page then why not join the SA group? Its a great way to keep in touch with the latest developments and to make a contribution to the team. Don’t worry your posts are only seen by other group members and you don’t need to become friends with anyone in the group to join. Go on give it a try!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=187488357314