As the UK lockdown eases, some companies are beginning to return workers to the office. Whether on a full- or part-time basis, many people are going back to their desks and starting to have in-person meetings. After five months of working from home, the workplace routine may no longer feel familiar, especially with the addition of necessary Covid-secure safety measures. For others, they may be returning from months of furlough, meaning this isn’t just a return to work in person. So how can you adjust to this transition? We have some tips:
Be familiar with the precautions your workplace is taking.
Knowing how your office will operate can ease feelings of anxiety around new unknowns, as well as being essential for maintaining a safe workplace.
Detailed government advice on how to safely work in an office environment is available here .
Consider your commute.
While public transport is available, you might prefer to walk, cycle, or take another mode of private transport instead. Could now be the ideal time to find ways to get physically active on your commute?
If public transport is your only option, consider traveling at less busy times (many workplaces are staggering start times for this reason), and remember to bring a face covering!
Focus on the positives of being in the office, in person.
Remember that face-to-face interaction are a key way to build trusting workplace relationships; in person meetings and office chats are important.
But don’t be afraid to use techniques learned from avoiding distractions at home in the office. Noise-blocking headphones can be useful here as well!
If you’re returning from furlough, or even just a holiday, focus on returning to routine before you start back.
It might just be a question of adjusting your alarm clock a few days in advance, or of getting in touch with work colleagues socially in order to get back into the office headspace.
Whether you are returning to the office full-time, part-time, or not for a while, we hope these tips prove useful. Remember to follow government guidance and keep safe during the pandemic. Check out our other blog posts and virtual events for more!
Virtually everyone, everywhere is being given the challenge of doing more with less. And the good news, is that the “do more with less” challenge presents a golden opportunity for smart, proactive and mindful people.
But we have a problem.
Do you know that the average person effectively works 50% of their time?
Lack of Focus and Attention is the main problem.
Yes, the effects of the “always on” culture and the digital era. We are continuously distracted, trying to do more but, doing less and worse. Multitasking it used to be a strength in performance appraisals, but it is now it’s now a weakness.
Can Your company afford a 50% productivity or not to adapt or drive change? I doubt it.
In these traumatic circumstances many employers and employees are feeling that they are struggling to maintain control of the situation . Designed for busy professionals looking for a new way of working within high-stress, high-paced conditions I have created 3 programs to help you and your organizations to succeed during turbulence times.
The quantitative results of these programs are: enhance change, improve leaderships skills and performance at work with Coaching and Mindfulness and increased focus and effectiveness, as well as enhanced quality of life, reduced stress, and better well-being help.
Leading During Turbulence Times-How to Lead and Achieve Results
This program focuses on crisis and change management and will support you in navigating during turbulence providing you with tools to not only adapt to change but to turn it into opportunity, to do more with less , prepare for the future and build a stronger workforce and organisation.
Enhance Your Performance at Work With Mindfulness
Many leaders and employees are feeling that they are struggling to maintain focus on the important things. This course will teach you mindfulness tools and techniques that will enable you and your team to manage attention, improve awareness, sharpen focus and clarity, manage change, and get more and better things done, today’s formula for success
The content and delivering method are customized as per your needs and they could be delivered as virtual workshops or Be Spoke programs in English or Spanish.
In the program I will share
Tools and techniques for adapting and drive change, increase productivity and leadership at all levels of the organisation
Coaching and Mindfulness techniques to enhance focus, clarity, and results
Simple yet detailed step-by-step actionable plan for you and/or your team
Contact me to get more information about how to help you or your company to achieve sustainable success increasing focus and effectiveness, as well as enhanced quality of life, reduced stress, and better well-being.
Chamber member and Manchester based forwarder and groupage operator Ital Logistics has just celebrated its 20th birthday in August! Over the decades, the company has made a name for itself as a specialist carrier of chemicals and other dangerous goods, as well as freight of all kinds, throughout Italy, Greece and the Iberian Peninsula. However, it still retains the ethos of a family firm and founder Phil Denton is determined to see this continue as the company embarks on the next 20 years of its history. To get to know the company, we present an interview that he recently had with the Freight Business Journal.
How did it all begin?
I started work in the freight industry straight from school with Tower Express in 1978, in Trafford Park, and later in the old Salford docks. I went on to work for various companies in and around Manchester and, in 1989, the company I was with then asked me to manage a new Italian trailer service. Even though I didn’t know it at the time, this was an important turning point in my career, as Italy was to play a very big part in my life. Later, in 1993, I became Italian Route Development Manager at what was then M&S Europe (later renamed IS Logistics, part of the Italsempione group).
Leaving IS Logistics in 1998 I spent two years developing Italian services at a small forwarder in Burnley, alongside ITX Cargo, a spin-off from Italsempione founded in the same year by key personnel from Italsempione; namely Roberto Tagliareni, Dario Bragonzi and Claudio Moresco.
Then, Brian Hay, founding member and later to become CEO of Cardinal Maritime, asked me if I had ever thought of setting up my own company. So, with his support, I founded Ital Logistics Limited in 2000.
The company started off as a partnership between myself, the three Cardinal Directors of the time and a small shareholding by Roberto Tagliareni – but since 2015 it has been solely owned by my wife, Dianne, and I.
And how did Ital Logistics evolve over the years?
In April 2001 we moved to Eccles where we shared facilities with Cardinal, later moving with them to Sharston where we stayed until 2014. Outgrowing these facilities, we separated from Cardinal and moved to our present office and depot at Heywood, a 16,000ft² facility over 1¼ acres, with dock-levellers, full access control, 60 day recorded CCTV coverage and secure 24/7 manned ANPR site security.
We are a North-west based company so naturally we have many customers in this region but we have valued clients all over the UK and, indeed, Europe.
While Ital started off serving primarily Italy, over time we have also become one of the leading groupage operators to and from Spain. We also service the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, Greece and, more recently, Malta and France.
Also, six years ago, we started our sea freight forwarding department. Initially, this was an added-value service for our existing road groupage clients but it has become increasingly important as a business centre in its own right.
We now have a team of 31, including myself and Dianne, most of whom have been here for between 10 and 17 years. Whilst a big investment, taking our own premises enabled growth. When we left Sharston we were just 20 people, and our turnover then was £9.4 million. Last year closed at £15.5 million.
Does ITAL have any niche areas that it specialises in?
Dangerous goods is a big Ital specialism. Over the years, I worked with many shippers in the chemical industry and when I set up Ital I realised that this was an area where there were fewer groupage operators providing a service. So we made this a specialism – and decided to do it properly.
Some of the clients I was working with in previous companies were in the chemical sector so I learned how to transport their goods. Having used a consultant in the first couple of years, and seeing the opportunity in this sector, I considered it essential to take the role of DGSA (Dangerous Goods Safety Advisor) to comply with legislation and ‘do it proper’. So I became our first DGSA. That was 2004.
Now we have four qualified Dangerous Goods Safety Advisors, including myself. The DG regulations are becoming more onerous, although I do in fact wish that they would become more so and that there was stricter monitoring – both to improve safety in the supply chain and to ensure that only qualified companies move hazardous cargoes.
Specialising in dangerous goods has stood us in good stead and last year contributed 24.3% of our total shipments, with many of our forwarder competitors using our services. This indeed is testament itself to the quality of service which we provide in this sector, and also to our neutrality.
In the most recent decade, I have devoted a lot of time to developing the HAZculator®, which looks up all hazardous goods data for the different modes of transport – ADR for road, IMDG for sea freight and ferries, and also Eurotunnel and other road tunnels – and returns everything you need to know. It saves time and, more importantly, reduces human error, dealing with the problems of combining multiple hazardous loads and alerting users should they accidentally combine incompatible goods.
We also have our new bespoke freight software FREIGHTsoft®, which incorporates the HAZculator®, and handles all aspects of quoting and booking jobs, accounts, load planning, warehousing, inventory storage, CRM and integration with other systems. And more.
Recently, the thoughts of everyone in the freight industry – and business generally – have been dominated by the Covid crisis. How well has Ital coped and what effect has it had on the company?
First of all, let me say that the single most important factor that has allowed us to get through this is the comradeship of all our people here. Their response has been truly unbelievable and they are the main reason why Ital Logistics will get through the crisis.
During the early stages of the crisis, we regretfully furloughed 14 people on the expectation of huge losses, given that Italy and Spain contribute more than 64% of our total business. We also purchased laptops and switches so that many people could also work from home. We still had four people working in the office, along with two in the warehouse and myself. Everyone worked extremely hard to keep things going, and we ourselves kept everyone abreast of what was happening.
However, we soon found that April wasn’t as quiet a month as we thought it would be – we were in fact moving around 75% of our normal business. Furthermore, taking into account government support, we are operating at more or less break-even level, so all in all we’ve been pretty resilient. Our specialisation in the carriage of dangerous goods has been one of the reasons.
Perhaps lucky, but very few of our customers have shut up shop completely, and we’ve been able to keep our services going to all our markets. Indeed, the other factor that has helped us is that we have many good, loyal customers. We’ve also picked up a lot of business for our freight forwarding department – in fact, April was our best ever month for sea freight – which will stand us in good stead for the future, especially after Brexit.
We have gradually brought people back, with just seven possibly still on furlough when this goes to print, and hope to be back to full strength before too long.
Any thoughts on how Ital and the industry generally will emerge from the Covid crisis?
My personal thoughts are that the period of greatest risk is not immediately after the crisis, but next year, when there could be the biggest risk of company insolvencies. The government has offered loans and subsidies to keep businesses afloat – arguably, more than any other in the world – but there will come a time when all the deferred tax and VAT will have to be paid, and people shouldn’t forget that. The government needs to take a gentle approach to companies in March, which I believe will be the period of real pain. And it will be a long term process – the financial experts say it will be a six to eight-quarter recovery from this financial crisis and when you factor in Brexit, well, it may even be longer.
The best thing that we can do is to keep on doing what we have done for the last 20 years. Yes, the landscape of business is changing, but if it isn’t broken, we shouldn’t try to fix it, just ‘tweak it’ here and there.
Any thoughts on Brexit?
What can anyone say that hasn’t already been said on this subject? Nonetheless, we did get all our preparation work done, as far as was possible, prior to the previous deadlines, so we are as geared up as anyone can be. Our software has been adjusted to provide the information necessary to pass to our customs brokers, and we will further adjust it in Q4 to ensure it meets needs, and will pick up on the necessary training.
Brexit has been overshadowed by Covid, but I haven’t changed my diary. A lot can still change.
You have built up Ital from scratch over 20 years. How are you going to hand on that legacy?
It would be very easy to accept a large cheque for the company from a multinational and indeed I have been approached on a couple of occasions in the last few years. But I’m very mindful that without the people that work in it, the company wouldn’t be where it is today, so it’s very important those who have worked the hardest at Ital Logistics have a long-term future in it.
As I have said, most of our people have been here over ten years, one has been here 17 years and, once they come here, they tend not to leave.
This year, we were going to start a five-year management buyout process. Obviously, this has had to be put on hold, but this is still the intended route plan, with myself retaining a small shareholding. It is just delayed and we will pick this back up about a year from now.
I hope that way we will be able to maintain the ethos of a family company – and look forward to the next 20 years.
To find about more about Ital logistics and the services they offer, you can visit their website here: https://ital-logistics.com/.
When is the best moment of the year to organise a trade action in Spain? Even we cannot give a very precise answer to this questions, this TradeTip offers some information about this and analyses several aspects to be considered when organising a commercial trip to Spain if we want to make sure we have a certain number of meetings when visiting the country.
If you need any extra information, feel free to contact our team by sending an email to info@spanishchamber.co.uk mentioning TradeTip September 2020.
¿Cuándo es el mejor momento del año para organizar una acción comercial en el Reino Unido? Aunque no podamos dar una respuesta rotunda a esta pregunta, el TradeTip de este mes ofrece algunos elementos que debemos tener en cuenta del calendario británico si queremos incrementar nuestras probabilidades de éxito en una visita comercial.
Para más información no dudes en contactar a nuestro equipo enviando un email a info@spanishchamber.co.uk con el asunto TradeTip septiembre 2020
The Sagardi Group’s London restaurant, a member of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the UK, has reopened its doors!
This Basque restaurant was created in 1996 with the goal of seeking the gastronomic roots of its founders and offer high-quality, solid and authentic dishes. Over the years, this project has become a prestigious referent in the restaurant world, one that initially specialised in quality Basque cooking and today has diversified into other gastronomic cultures as well.
During the difficult times that we are living due to COVID-19, the Sagardi Group has helped the most vulnerable group of people, the elderly.
More than 150 volunteers, 7 social care entities, 25 providers of reliable food, 9 technical companies, actors, Txapeldun of the year, club members and all the technical, operational, gastronomic and the management body of the Sagardi Group have collaborated with the aim of reaching more than 2,800 grandfathers and grandmothers, cooking for all of them, under the following motto:
“WE CAN’T LET THE SICKNESS, LONELINESS AND ISOLATION TAKE ITS TOLL ON OUR OLDER GENERATION.
We want to put a good food on the table of every grandmother who needs it in our city, but not only that; we want to hug them, be by their side and give them company, affection and recognition.
WE ARE AND WE COOK AS OUR GRANDMOTHERS TAUGHT US.”
Sagardi Group has distributed more than 45,000 meals to older people to support them during the crisis of the COVID-19.
“Cap àvia sense un bon àpat” was a campaign by the Txapeldun Foundation directed to the most vulnerable group in society, the over-70s, with the aim of encouraging people to stay home and eat well.
From the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the United Kingdom we would like to congratulate and thank the Sagardi Group for this initiative which has been so necessary throughout these difficult times.
From 1 August and throughout the month of August, they will join the UK government’s campaign to offer a discount of up to £10 for meals served at their restaurant on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. If you are a member of their Txapeldun club you will be entitled to an additional 10% off on top of this.
We encourage you to visit Sagardi London ‘s website and their beautiful east London restaurant, which can be found at:
95, Curtain Road (Shoreditch)
Cordy House building EC2A3BS
This new TradeTip presents the existing opportunities for organic/eco Food and Drinks in Spain. The increasing awareness of health and environmental issues is increasing the demand of these products in other markets, and we analyse if this is also happening in the Spanish market and to what extent. We look at the general statistics and the main distributors, as well as some of the most relevant aspects to consider.
If you need any extra information, feel free to contact our team by sending an email to info@spanishchamber.co.uk mentioning TradeTip August 2020.
Este nuevo TradeTip presenta las oportunidades existentes para los productores de comida y bebida ecológica. La creciente concienciación por aspectos ambientales y de salud parecen estar favoreciendo un incremento de la demanda de este tipo de alimentos, y aquí intentamos analizar cuáles son las oportunidades reales, sus principales canales de distribución y damos algunos consejos al respecto.
Para más información no dudes en contactar a nuestro equipo enviando un email a info@spanishchamber.co.uk con el asunto Trade tips agosto 2020.
We would like to welcome Hausfeld as a new Benefactor of the Spanish Chamber.
Hausfeld is a leading disputes-only specialist law firm with offices on both sides of the Atlantic. It pioneered the private enforcement of competition claims in Europe ten years ago and continues to be recognised as an innovator in the legal market.
Its team comprises highly experienced commercial litigators, with a proven track record in managing competition, commercial, human rights and environmental disputes, with notable success in financial services, shareholder claims, technology and insolvency. The team includes Spanish speakers and dual-qualified lawyers admitted to the Spanish Bar. Our lawyers have considerable expertise in leading complex – often ground-breaking – high value disputes, often opposed by Magic/Silver Circle and top US and European firms.
Hausfeld’s ability to offer flexible engagement structures, willingness to share risk and work with litigation funders, allows its clients to pursue claims with a level of cost/risk best suited to their circumstances. The firm’s conflict-free platform means that it can take instructions where other law firms cannot. With 12 offices across Europe and the US, Hausfeld can litigate in jurisdictions that suit its clients best.
Should you wish to know more about our new benefactor, please visit their website by clicking here.
Summer is a perfect time to slow down and review what have you done before you start moving forward
We all know how difficult is to achieve our goals and how frustrating is to see how years pass by without seeing that change in your personal or professional life.That’s why is important to take control of your personal and professional live and review your goals regularly to keep focus on what’s important for you.
There is something unique about September. As the summer draws to a close and the new term begins, September often feels like the start of a new year, offering many possibilities.
Most of us come back rested and refreshed after a summer break and are ready to get back into a routine. There is a sense of enthusiasm, seeking opportunities and being ready to embrace new challenges.
So it makes sense to set aside some time to review, set goals and make a plan. In fact, spending time in early Summer is the ideal time before the busyness of the end of the year takes over. This will still leave you with plenty of time to achieve your goals. Here are some steps you can take.
Take time to review, plan and set goals
Review your goals – Start by reviewing progress made towards achieving any goals you’ve already set yourself. Consider what has worked well for you; list the skills you have developed, challenges met and any key areas of learning. You can then identify any gaps, note what has got in the way of progress and establish what you would like to achieve.
Re-establish and set new goals – Following a review, you will be aware of any goals which still need completing and identify any new ones. Make sure that you set SMART goals which are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time measurable. This will help you to keep focused and achieve what you set out accomplish.
Get organised – Being organised is the key to success. Map out the rest of the year ahead and plan what you need to do. Use planning tools to help you get organised such as year planners, digital calendars or bullet journal. Remember to list the resources and support you need to keep you on track.
Set effective work patterns – Think through how you can best structure your time to improve productivity. For example, by setting aside time for specific projects and making time for regular breaks.
Invest in your professional development – The start of an academic year brings new opportunities to engage in study or learn a new skill. Identify any areas you would like to develop and invest in yourself. This could be engaging with training, an online course or setting aside regular time to read professional journals.
Look after health, well-being and self-care – It is important to look after yourself, so make sure you include health, well-being and self-care in your review. Think about what you need to be healthy, and plan goals around fitness, well-being and self-care. For example, including time to exercise in your week, booking time for social activities and planning healthy meals.
Invest in your Career development – September brings new opportunities for your career development. September and January are the months when more vacancies are published so if you are thinking about making that step in your career, this is the time to get prepared!
Summary
Summer provides the ideal time to review, set goals and make a plan. By embracing the renewed energy and enthusiasm which Summer brings, you will be more organised and have a clear plan for the rest of the year. Why don’t you take some time to reflect and ensure that you end the year where you want to be.
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog
My name is Nieves Rodriguez, and I support busy professionals with the Careers, Leaderships skills ,to be more effective, reduce stress and achieve a healthy balance in life. Providing clarity and focus for a more fulfilling personal and professional life.
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How did it all begin? 
Recently, the thoughts of everyone in the freight industry – and business generally – have been dominated by the Covid crisis. How well has Ital coped and what effect has it had on the company? 
