Issue 37/08

Friday, 21st December 2007

Some of you may know, others may not, that Alexandre London have sponsored the infamous Red Arrows Acrobatic Team for a number of years now. The Red Arrows are the equivalent of and fly each year with The Thunderbirds based at Nellis AFB and The Blue Angels the US Navy Acrobatic Team based in Pensacola.

California Fires

Europe Notes from John Collins

So how did we do this week?

WEEK 37

It was a good week for our area, beating target once again and last year. We achieved 112% of target and 116% of last year.

Here are the figures for week 37.

AREA L/Y TARGET ACTUAL % TARGET LAST YR %
J. COLLINS - FORCES 76,287 78,676 88,144 112 116

What a busy week this week was and congratulations to you all. It was nice to see that not only did we beat target but also last year’s figures. Made to measure was actually 209% of last year while ready to wear was 111% Keep up the good work.

The top branches this week on combined targets are:

  • LAKENHEATH 145% of target and 143% of last year making total sales of $12,208. Another fantastic week Gary.
  • RAMSTEIN 136% of target and 144% of last year with an amazing $14,273 of trade. Well done Trevor, Geoff, and Leigh.
  • KAISERSLAUTERN 127% of target 103% of last year MM $2419 and RM $12,358 total sales of $14,777 an excellent week Leigh and Geoff Heath.
  • HEIDELBERG 114% of target and 100% of last year great week Alan and Geoff with sales of $8,069.
  • GRAFENWOEHR 111% of target nice to see once again decent figure coming out of Graf well done Paul perseverance pays off.
  • CHIEVRES 107% of target and 109% of last year and this with GB Shape his part time branch also being up 118% on target was a good week for David.
  • WIESBADEN 104% of target and 111% of last year. The two Geoff’s just scraping in on target which is very good considering as we all know the troops are down range.

Here is an amazing story of customers helping themselves and paying for the items. Vince’s part time branch down in Aviano Italy had an amazing week, without a person to help the customers, a fantastic figure of $6,550 was reported by Luciana. Vince is on his way over the snowy Alps to replenish the stock.

This is the last week before Christmas, many of the parties are over and as the main suit sales are leaving us behind, this is the time of the “last minute gifts”. The time for cuff links, ties and shirts - make sure that you have all of these items prominently on display to inspire the customer who is looking for that last minute gift.

Good trading and a hectic run up to Christmas

ONLY ANOTHER WEEK OF JINGLE BELLS on the radio. It was nice to listen to the first week...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU ALL

We all need to work together to succeed

Thank you, good luck, and good trading.

John Collins
ASM

ALEXANDRE LONDON SPONSORS THE RED ARROWS

Some of you may know, others may not, that Alexandre London have sponsored the infamous Red Arrows Acrobatic Team for a number of years now. The Red Arrows are the equivalent of and fly each year with The Thunderbirds based at Nellis AFB and The Blue Angels the US Navy Acrobatic Team based in Pensacola. They are renowned for being the best in their field and they are a great British Icon.

Each year BMB on behalf of Alexandre London Savile Row give each member of the team a complete outfit of suit, shirt and tie and in return we receive recognition as a sponsor within their advertising. We are also given the opportunity to take some of our customers around Scampton AFB in Lincolnshire which is where they are based in the UK and our customers have the opportunity to meet The Reds, listen to a Team Briefing and De-brief and watch them practice their routines in the air before a complete tour of the site and an aeroplane.

You may be thinking now – why are we being told this. Well this is a great piece of advertising for our brand and in the field that our customer’s are in we are sure that they will find this an interesting piece of news. After all the Red Arrows wear Alexandre suits. Below is a picture of the Reds in their new outfits which they debuted recently at an Airshow in Dubai.

FINALLY ON BEHALF OF THE MANAGEMENT AND UK TEAM OF ALEXANDRE LONDON
WE WOULD LIKE TO WISH YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES
A VERY HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON
AND A HEALTHY, HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.

USA - Notes from Andy Schofield

Andy is on holiday this week so this is an update from Tracey.

A great week last week everyone, WELL DONE TO ALL OF YOU!

The numbers were high this week and although we didn’t quite make it we managed to pull in combined sales at 88% of target and 87% of last year. Well done to all of you.

Ready to Wear achieved sales of $75,337 which was 92% of target and 96% of last year which was a great effort, albeit Made to Measure was disappointing with sales of $9768 which was 66% of target and only 50% of last year. We are running the same promotion this year as last on made to measure so we know that we can do the figures at this time of year and we need to keep pushing this as much as we can and bringing the units in. The factory are closed for the next few days but they need orders for when they return.

We have some high numbers to achieve during week 38, on made to measure our target is $15k and on ready to wear $91k. To give you an idea of the kind of numbers that we have been achieving on RM, over the last four weeks we have taken $69k in week 34, $68k in week 35, $88k in week 36 and $76K in week 37 and week 38 last year was $82k. So to achieve these numbers we need a big push this weekend, the edge we have this week over last year is that it is a full trading week with Christmas Eve falling into next week’s figure which we didn’t have in 2006.

Don’t forget those Accessories when selling the big ticket items – every penny counts!

Last week the whole division sold 235 pairs of cuff links, 683 ties and 362 shirts making total add on sales of $41,293.

Week 37 - STAR PLAYERS

Some big results this week guys, from some of your team mates:

  • FORT DIX MCGUIRE – Top of the shop and a big well done to Nicky Swinney with total sales of $5,249 and $1,564 on made to measure made Nicky the highest percentage against target this week at 124%. Look out for a very festive picture of Nicky with Santa Claus in this week’s Back Chat.
  • BUCKLEY – Just 1% behind on the leader board is Paul Black in his Buckley store with sales of $3243 which was 123% of target and included $1395 on measures. Interesting that the top two stores have both had good measure sales this week. Well done to you Paul – keep up the good work.
  • FORT MEADE – Another 1% behind Paul was Trevor Branch in Fort Meade . Trevor pulled in sales of $7,567 which was 122% of target. Great week for you Trevor well done.
  • HENDERSON HALL – Rahim Ouanina came in fourth position with measure sales of $1,518 and total sales of $8,879 which was 119% of target. Well Done Rahim.

Other branches that hit target last week were Fort Bragg (118%), Fort Myer (113%) and Nellis (103%). An honorary mention also goes to Andrews AFB (99%)

That’s eight branches in total that made target last week – it can be done !!

BACK CHAT

Your Christmas edition of Back Chat will follow Team Talk, we had a disappointing response from most Managers but thank you to those that did contribute.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES

Good Luck this week everyone – Tracey (On behalf of Andy).