Successful solutions

From the Bolton Evening News, first published Wednesday 14th Nov 2001.

KATHRYN Czaja and her former East Lancashire Supply Solutions team helped Accrington-based Academy Print and Design win new contracts worth £50,000.

The company also estimates that thousands of pounds worth of other new contracts were won through knock-on referrals from these clients.

Managing Director Nick Oakley said: "At the time, this represented a large chunk of our turnover and introduced us to some big local companies.

"It was up to us, of course, to convert the new business by offering the best combination of quality, service and price, but Kathryn and her team helped make the necessary introductions and set us on the road to real growth".

Supply Solutions helped Blackburn-based Abbey Telecom, which also has an office in Bolton, win over £100,000 worth of new contracts.

Within 12 months, the Chamber's Supply Solutions team found the telecommunications company major new orders with local firms Barnfield Construction, Carlson Filtration, the Strategy Group Plc and Ashworth Engineering, as well as brokering a range of smaller contracts.

Supply Solutions also helped the company source new suppliers for its own business, including bright yellow carpet for an exhibition stand, which the company was having great difficulty in finding.

Tony Raynor, Managing Director of Abbey Telecomms, said: "We had some great results through the Chamber's supply chain initiative and it is a powerful way of boosting the local economy. This is all about the re-circulation of local cash -- ensuring that local companies spend their money with other local companies, wherever possible.

"The more businesses that get behind Bolton and Bury Chamber's Business Advantage scheme, the more momentum and the more success there will be." TONY RAYNOR