HillsTalk August 2016

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Record Keeping

Hills are proud members of the British Number Plate Manufacturers association who are the industry’s link to the UK governments Department of Transport and the DVLA. Positioned as the leading number plate supplier Hills regulate how they manufacture and distribute readymade plates and components.

DVLA

Manufacturers of readymade plates must be registered with the DVLA as an official number plate supplier. For more information on registering as a supplier visit https://www.gov.uk/ plate-supplier. Registered suppliers are committing to keeping records of vehicle registrations in line with DVLA legislation.

You need to keep records of registration plates for three years or risk a fine up to £1,000 and/or suspension from the register. Records must include customer’s name and address, vehicle registration number and proof of entitlement and a number, from an original document, that can be used to trace the customer.

Typically an original document with a traceable number is a driving licence licence and proof of entitlement is usually a V5C Vehicle Registration Certificate (log book). A list of acceptable documents can be found in the Hills Record Keeping Guideline with a Record Sheet Template at: https://hillsnumberplates.com/legislation

If the DVLA, police and Trading Standards request to see your records you must let them.

Golf Tournament

In July Hills hosted a charity golf tournament at Hawkstone Park near Shrewsbury to raise funding for Ronald McDonald House. Ronald McDonald House provides much needed ‘home away from home’ accommodation at specialist children’s hospitals across the UK. Giving families the opportunity to maintain a degree of normal life whilst their children receive medical care. With the support of many customers and suppliers Hills raised over £2,000. We would like to thank everyone for their support and help in raising funds for this worthwhile cause.

Golf Day Photo

Winning team Allen Ford

Dual Metallising

Dual exhibited at Automechanika in June, this was the perfect platform to grow the company within the automotive market. The team had a busy three days showcasing their product range, speaking to many wonderful clients and building a rapport within the industry. A lot of customers found the process of manufacturing lighting reflectors for vehicles fascinating and an inexpensive solution for their business.

Dual Metallising

Since the acquisition, Dual re-organised the building to improve manufacturing processes and built a meeting room and a canteen. The meeting room is also utilised as training space and the canteen provides a communal area for employees to relax and socialise outside of the factory floor.

With business growth came a demand for recruitment. Dual believe offering an apprenticeship will help a young individual gain knowledge of the business world and benefit from the structured training programme available at Dual. They are currently working with Birmingham Metropolitan College to fill the role.

Hills group in France

Hills group in France

The recent addition of the French licence plate manufacturer, Faab Fabricauto to the group is a highly complementary fit and places the newly expanded Hills group of companies amongst the largest producers of licence plates globally. We currently supply 19 countries and by combining Hills flat digitally printed plate products with the many types of embossed plates produced by the French operations we are in the enviable position of being able to offer the widest range of licence plate types.

The advanced manufacturing and effective processes employed by the teams across all of the group’s operations allow for the sharing and development of best practices and expansion into related sectors which fall outside of the normal core business.

Faab Fabricauto as well as plate production have a commercial print division providing a range of OEM products to the French automotive industry. Chris Glendinning, Group Export Director commented: “The bringing together of two of Europe’s leading and progressive licence plate producers is intended to provide the best levels of quality and service to our existing customers and hopefully an irresistible proposition to the new markets and territories where we seek to grow”.

Eyeway Signs

Eyeway Signs supported John Taylor Hospice during Dementia Awareness Week. In continued support of the Dementia Action Alliance and for Dementia Awareness Week the Eyeway Signs team donated a day out of their week to fit signage at the Hospice. Erdington based John Taylor Hospice had recently undergone a massive refurbishment to freshen up the interior and to make the hospice more Dementia friendly. During discussions, they mentioned that a few local companies were donating time to help with the refurbishment as part of Dementia Awareness Week. So after talking it through we agreed that we would donate a day out of our week to fit the signage they had ordered.

Eyeway

Here’s a link to a video showing our team hard at work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FU08-GcX5U

Communication Boards

Care Communication Board

During the Health + Care Show on June 29th Eyeway launched the Care Communication Board and Tracheostomy Board. Communication Boards are the perfect tool that aid in communication for all care settings. The simple symbols created by Widgit assist in effective dialogue between care professionals, residents and patients. These boards have been designed for people with learning disabilities, unable to speak English and for people who cannot speak or hear due to their condition.

You can find the Communication Board range at: www.eyewaysigns.com/shop-by-range/communication-boards

Star Awards

Congratulations to Petar Petrov, the winner of the summer 2016 Star Awards! Petar joined Hills in January 2016 and is based in the Pick and Dispatch department. Petars outstanding performance has improved quality and turnaround time of packaging customer goods. Throughout Petars training and development his confidence increased and he demonstrated a passion for other divisions of the business and got involved in a few ad hoc assignments. Michael Pope, Team Leader said: “Petar has fit in with the team extremely well and takes pride in his role and is a pleasant member of staff”

Star Awards

Employee Engagement

Hills employees are the foundation of success in driving this award winning company. Due to rapid expansion of Hills group of companies the business became a high profile international organisation with an increase in their work force. Hills envisage the best working environment, more training and development and an attractive employment package for all employees. A large project such as this needed a great team, hence an internal works council was formed. The works council has representatives from all areas of the business who report to the Chairman, Managing Director of Hills, Richard Taffinder. The council are tasked with collating information from their departments on improving work policies and practices to benefit both the company and employees. Proposals are discussed in monthly meetings to implement suggestions and set up Hills very own talented institution of top quality employees. The strategy is to restructure Hills employment package by 2017.

Our team

Managing Director, Richard Taffinder commented…

“We want to be the best, thus need the best, for which we will pay the best. Hills are very lucky to have a hard working loyal work force and the works council will help enforce a positive ethos throughout the company whilst providing employees with the best employee package.”

Team News

We have had a baby boom at Hills with many members of the team welcoming their bundles of joy to the world. Congratulations are in order to:

David Cook, Chad Smith, Chris Grainger, Julian Caine and Zakar Razaq.

HillsTalk Image

Congratulations are in order to Nicola Dorman who was promoted to Team Leader in Finished Plates.

Congratulations to Group Sales Director, Adrian Berry, on completing 10 years at Hills on 20th February. Adrian joined the company as an Area Sales Manager in 2006 progressing to his present position.

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