Mike Braddock, Managing Director, had two main objectives for 1999: to achieve sales of more than £1m in one month, and to achieve a total turnover of £10m for the year. As readers will know from our last issue, the opportunity of an alliance with Tullis Russell Coatings was taken up in the Spring of 1999 and, since then, both companies have seen the benefits as, hopefully, have our customers.

Slater Harrison achieved its first million pound month in April 1999, which has been repeated every month since. To celebrate the first £1m month, we had a party for all our staff, which was well deserved and enjoyed by all.

Sales for the year topped £12million, making 1999 the best year in the history of Slater Harrison. What a great way to end the millennium!

We wish all our readers and customers the very best for 2000 and beyond.

See it for yourself at the Spring Fair

This year's International Spring Fair at the NEC in Birmingham promises an exciting start to the new Millennium. As usual, Slater Harrison will exhibit Colourmount in Hall 6/20, in the art and framing section, but will be welcoming visitors from all the markets we serve as well as all the countries in which we sell our products.

One of the products we are promoting heavily this year is Centura Pearl and it can be seen in all its glory as acid free white core mount board on our stand at the Spring Fair. We have used it to mount a number of different styles of picture, with both single and double or triple mounts, all of which will be displayed on the stand. We also have the bridal headdress framed by Pete Bingham especially for this issue of In The Frame (kindly lent by the blushing bride for the occasion!) as well as the stratagraphics designed and produced by Toby Mercer in the USA. If you have never seen a stratagraphic in the flesh, you will be amazed by their intricacy and style.

Andrew Branton, Colourmount's Market Development Manager, will be demonstrating how well Centura Pearl cuts, making mounts on the stand using a Keencut Ultimat Gold mountcutter.

Every visitor to the stand will be given a mounted picture, while stocks last, to take away with them and a wide range of point of sale material will be available on the stand, including our brand new wall-charts and chevron sets at both sizes.

The Spring Fair offers a marvellous opportunity to see everything that's new in the framing industry, as well as in the gift and promotional markets. See us on Stand M16 in Hall 6/20 for a warm welcome from all at Slater Harrison.

Integrated poster roll range now available

One of the greatest benefits of the Strategic Alliance with Tullis Russell Coatings has been the development of an integrated range of products for the Education market. This is particularly evident within the poster paper range.

Many Educational wholesalers have historically stocked both Tullis Russell's Samba range of poster sheets and rolls as well as Slater Harrison's Ingersley range. Since the Alliance, we have spent a lot of time considering the requirements of our customers in order to agree a single poster paper range under the Educraft brand name.

The new range includes the most popular colours from both Samba and Ingersley and has been widely accepted by the market.

The range includes 24 superb colours, allowing plenty of creative scope for teachers, with pack sizes remaining unchanged. The official launch date for the Educraft poster paper range is April 1st, although stock will be available to wholesalers from January.
For information on any of the Educraft range, please contact David Walker.