News, features and facts.
News
Pleased to meet you!
"Very pleasantly surprised" was the response of Nick Watts, MARTOR UK's Sales & Marketing Director to the company's recent showing at four exhibitions in the first half of 2010. He added "All the shows were well attended and buzzing with activity. We achieved record sales leads at each show."
The element of surprise, according to Managing Director Peter Ingram, was better than expected visitor numbers and the level of interest in new products. Although anecdotal, he believes the success of the four exhibitions, at Sandown, Glasgow and two in the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, suggests a recovery from recession is clearly underway. He also gives full credit to the organisers for their success in very challenging times.
High visitor numbers has been a boon to MARTOR UK's 2010 launch of new products and services. Ian Suggitt explains how "Personal service and practical demonstrations are at the heart of the MARTOR UK's approach. Exhibitions create the opportunity for many more people to see the benefits of MARTOR knives for themselves and better still try them out. It was great to meet so many customers and potential customers."
Martor UK are next exhibiting at 2010 Health & Safety in Edinburgh on 15/16th September and 2010 Health & Safety in Bolton, October 2010. Please request a call back for a complimentary ticket or to arrange a site visit and demonstration.
New Improved Clevercut
The long established Clevercut has been upgraded with a new blade plus safer blade change and is now available. Known as Clevercut II the new knife has a manually retractable blade (Safety Index 6) and is suitable for many cutting applications where the blade needs to be kept exposed when in use. The installed blade 45 is 0.3mm thick and has an exposed cutting edge of 11mm.
Made from polycarbonate and polyamide the Clevercut II is 16 grams in weight and only 9.5mm in length, which makes it highly portable.
Product Design Awards for MARTOR
Martor's Easysafe and MARTego safety knives both received peer group recognition of excellence in the prestigious ‘2010 red dot design awards.' being selected for honourable mention. The decisions by the Jury of 30 internationally known design experts crowns a series of successes. "We are proud to receive these awards by the international jury", says Patric Edel, Marketing Manager of Martor.
The company received its awards in front of an audience of 1000 guests on 5th July 2010 at the Aalto-Theater, Essen, Germany. They were joined with other winners in the product design category as well as from communication design and design concept categories. Winners were chosen out of 12,000 entries from more than 60 countries of which 4,252 from 57 countries were for product design. These awards are only given to products that not only stand out due to their design but also in terms of innovation, functionality, quality, ergonomics, aesthetics and affordances. The Easysafe and MARTego are available from Martor UK stock. Request a call back for more information.
Regular Features
Is This Your Problem? No. 4
A periodic review of the use of hand held knives in a very busy central distribution centre revealed an unexpectedly high use of replacement blades. On investigation it was discovered that an enterprising purchasing officer had changed to cheaper blades to save money. It turned out to be a very false economy. The cheap blades rapidly lost their edge or broke with the result that the distribution centre was using three times as many blades. Much worse, in terms of costs and staff frustration, was the extra time required to change and dispose of the extra blades.
Martor UK did the review and helped the customer make real cost savings and reduce the risk of cutting accidents.
Martor has always specialised in high quality blades AND with special attention given to blade change methods that are safer, easier and quicker – the vast majority require no tools.
Request a call back for more information.
Hints and Tips No. 4 - Follow Good Practice
The best guarantee of avoiding compensation payments resulting from cutting accidents is to follow the procedures laid down by health and safety regulation. This applies to both genuine and spurious accidents.
The procedures are not necessarily anything like as onerous as might be imagined but as case law has demonstrated, when followed correctly they can ensure a zero payout even when faced with a trade union backed claimant.
In a 2001 test case, the defendant, a major UK retail chain, successfully proved 5 points:
- the risk assessment was correct
- the selected safety knife from Martor "is a very neat and ingenious device" according to the judge
- cut resistant gloves were not necessary
- "instruction, information and training is entirely appropriate" according to the judge
- there was no breach of 'Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1995'
As part of its Safer Cutting Programme, Martor UK has a generic set of policies, arrangements, documents, training materials and records to help achieve a similar proof of compliance. Request a call back for more information.
Product Spotlight No. 4
Smartcut The popular choice for people on the move, temporary staff or occasional users needing to open different types of packaging including boxes. It is small (just 11cms long), lightweight (20grams) and disposable, yet comes with Martor's semi-automatic blade retraction technology.
With a blade extension of 14mm and a 0.30mm thick blade the Smartcut is totally suitable for cutting two ply corrugated boards and even the occasional tri-wall.
It is also used by many permanent staff when a smaller knife is preferred and where safety policy demands knives with a non-replaceable blade.
Smartcut can be printed for identity and promotional purposes and the handle produced in special colours subject to minimum quantities.