TROPHEX

www.trophex.com

In a conversation on Twitter the other morning, following my bewilderment at yet again being overlooked for a BAFTA nomination, @mangowe drew my attention to the world of trophy manufacture.

It's surprisingly difficult to find out much about the trophy industry. Not because any conscious secrecy on their part, but just because Googling various combinations of the words "awards" and "manufacturing" and "trophies" and "design" tends just to bring up awards for manufacturing or trophies for design.

There are lots of companies which supply awards, but they're all quite small, and I don't know - don't get me wrong, I'd be pleased to win ANY award - but if I found out my eg Britain's Loveliest Man award had been bought from a company called Better Trophies Better Prices ("If you're looking for better trophies at better prices you've found them!"), I wouldn't be so thrilled.

Anyway, Trophex. You might be thinking "Why should attend?" Well, as the Trophex website explains:

Trophex is the dedicated trophy, award and personalisation exhibition in the UK.

The show is free to attend and there’s free parking.

Well, those are quite convincing reasons.

Looks like news is a bit slow, with the next Trophex show not until January. Reports of the 2009 show sound positive though:

As always Trophex is very well attended and Sunday especially saw a vast number of trophy retailers visit the show. Martin Lakin from Timbertown Trophies in Woodville near Burton-on-Trent has only missed one Trophex in the last 10 years. He regularly visits the show to see the new range of products that are coming out. The show is also a great opportunity to find new areas to expand his business into, 70% of which is in motor racing, so he combines his visit to Trophex with a visit to the Autosport International exhibition which takes place at the NEC Birmingham at the same time.

I recognise this point is slightly weakened by the fact that I've copied and pasted this paragraph, but why would anyone, other than possibly Martin Lakin's wife, be interested in any of that?

Working in the trophy industry means always being the bridesmaid and never the bride. There doesn't appear to be a trophy designer of the year award. There's no trophy manufacturer of the year. I guess this is just because they could never figure out who should design the award. You'd get yourself into one of those strange loops that don't make sense, like the plot of the first Terminator film or something.

I think this is possibly the greatest title for a technical document ever.

YKK

www.ykkeurope.com

I've often wondered what the letters YKK stand for. You always see it on zips. YKK. "What does that stand for", I've wondered. Well, now I know. It stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha. I think I'll stick with calling them YKK.

YKK don't just make zips. They also make snaps, buttons, adjusters, buckles, ball chains, elastic tapes, cord stoppers, cord ends, hooks, holders and rings. But they're best known for zips. The names of the different types of zips they make are brilliant:

EXCELLA - High-end luxury zipper with individual polished zipper elements.
EVERBRIGHT - Glossed polished zipper elements.
LUMINA - Part of the Excella series. Same finish as standard Excella but utilises aluminium element. Aluminium provides strength as well as being extremely lightweight.
PROSEAL - The water tight and airtight zipper range.
YZIP - The Y Zip is designed specifically for jeans wear. Y- Zip is available in different sizes and finishes.
AQUAGUARD - The water repellent zipper range mainly used for outwear and luggage.
CONCEAL - Invisible (hidden) zipper elements.
FINGUARD - Fins on the zipper element reduce the risk of a slider catching on the garment.
FLATKNIT - The zipper element is knitted directly onto the tape. Flatknit can be used on even thin & stretchy fabrics.
GRADATION- A variety of colour variations are possible by utilising combinations of rainbow coloured sewing thread.
METALLION - The metal coloured coil-plated zipper range.
MINIFA - Size 0. The world’s smallest zipper!
QUICKBURST - The zipper has been designed to open via the QuickBurst elements and close like a normal zipper. Allowing things to burst in and out of the zipper!
VISLON - The plastic element zipper range.
GRAPHIC - Graphic is a concealed zipper which uses jacquard woven tape. Graphic is available for design customisation.
LUMIFINE - Glow-in-the-dark zippers and fastening products.
NATULON - Environmentally friendly zippers made from recycled material.
PRIFA - Ink jet printed zipper tape. Any pattern, colour or logo can be created using computer graphics.
ReEARTH - The environment-conscious zipper made from biodegradable plastic.

They all sound amazing, although I can't help but feel that the exclamation mark at the end of the description ofr the Quickburst zip is slightly inappropriate.

QUICKBURST - The zipper has been designed to open via the QuickBurst elements and close like a normal zipper. Allowing things to burst in and out of the zipper!

That just sounds wrong. I can imagine there are situations where you'd want things to burst out of the zipper, but don't sound so enthusiastic about it.

I like the sound of YKK's founder, Tadao Yoshida. He developed a "cycle of goodness" based on the philosophy that "no-one prospers unless he helps bring prosperity to others":



In the 75 years since Tadao Yoshida founded the company however, it seems this philosophy may have been forgotten. In 2007, YKK were fined €150.3m for running a price fixing cartel and sharing information with other companies.

However, as you can see from the Social and Environmental Report 2008:

The YKK Group seeks to be a corporation that is recognized as "a company that can be trusted," "a truly international company" and "a company with technology for the creation of new value." We will continue to pursue our business activities with these goals. For this reason, as we strengthen our corporate governance systems, we intend to enhance our legal compliance efforts and work to fulfill the responsibilities of a good corporate citizen.

You tell 'em, Tadahiro!

RESIN FLOORING ASSOCIATION

www.ferfa.org.uk

Why do all these associations insist on cheating with their acronyms? I can see where FeRFA get the RFA from. Resin Flooring Association. But what's the Fe all about? Maybe they're just fans of early Talking Heads. Ferfa ferfa fa ferfa fa fa fa.

It's extraordinary to imagine that FeRFA is the only organisation dedicated to resin flooring. You'd think there'd be dozens. Considering their unique status, they must get lots of people taking them up on their offer of of "free advice on all aspects of Resin Flooring, including specification and problem solving", so it's understandable that to try to improve service, they'd have a Frequently Asked Questions page.

I wonder how frequently they're asked some of these questions.

Q4. I have just had a PU screed installed and noticed that the flint aggregate is becoming more visible.

Just how many people are installing PU screeds and noticing that the flint aggregate is becoming more noticeable and then contacting FeRFA for advice? That seems like quite a specific question. Much more so than "Do I need a primer?".

If you are planning to install a resin floor, FeRFA provide a simple guide to the different types available and how suitable each type is for differing levels of usage. Floor seal seems RUBBISH. Even with just light duty usage, it only lasts 1-2 years, it's liable to impact damage, osmosis may occur, it's not that easy to clean, it's not suitable for food processing areas, it's easy to slip on and looks like it creates a bit of static. Fuck floor seal, it's an idiot.

Some of the floors on the gallery pages look lovely though. Like this from Ryebrook Resin:



I also like this all-in-one, wrapped wall/floor effect from Altro:



I hope the ceiling has the same finish too. That mirror frame looks a bit out of place though.

And there's something deeply beautiful about this picture:

THE GROCER

www.thegrocer.co.uk

Oh my. I think I'm addicted. Seriously. Every week for the last two months or so, I've bought The Grocer. I can't explain why. It makes no sense. It's a trade magazine for food and drink retailers, I work for a DVD distribution company. I should be reading Media Week, or Broadcast, or something like that. Not this. But if I see a headline like "AS MANY AS 50% OF ASDA'S 5,000 NEW ROLLBACKS OFFER JUST A 1p SAVING" or "WHY APPLE PRICES ARE DOWN 20% YEAR-ON-YEAR", sorry, but I've got to buy that magazine.

The current issue is especially good. They do special pull-out guides once a month I guess (the last one was about hot beverages). In this issue, there's a guide to confectionery. It's got Mr T on the front. Mr T says:

Listen up suckers, did you know:

• MARS is the No.1 manufacturer in sales of 'hunger' lines with 59% value share
  
• The hunger category is big and growing
  
• 'Hunger' is the 2nd largest needstate with sales of over £250m
  
• Multifacings of the best sellers (eg Mars, Snickers, Twix) will deliver more sales than 1 facing of a slower seller

I didn't know any of that, Mr T. Well, possibly the last one.

To be honest, I never realised how knowledgable Mr T was when it comes to this sort of thing. You've got to admire the way he has all these figures at his bejwelled fingertips.

The Grocer's Guide To Confectionery contains what is without doubt the clunkiest, clumsiest, most desperate, most awkward linking paragraph I have ever read in my life. Let me set the scene. Talking about Nestlé's advertising proposals for the coming year, journalist David Burrows then seeks a way to link that to the new Mikado product recently launched in the UK by Kraft. This is how he does it:

It's been another impressive year for KitKat with sales up over 30% to £94m. Buyers suggest Nestlé has "got its house in order" with the brand now, having improved the focus. The launch of KitKat Senses, fronted by the Girls Aloud babes, has also given the brand that Something Kinda Oooooh.

Britain's most popular girl brand was, of course, discovered on TV show "Popstars: The Rivals". And now, "their biscuit" could have a rival, of sorts, on the confectionery shelves with Kraft foods having just launched a "unique chocolate biscuit snack specifically designed for on-the-go customers".

Christ. I'm not claiming the rubbish I write on this bloody blog is any better, but, you know, I'm doing this for free. Fuck knows why.

The same article also contains sentence which, well, I wouldn't want to suggest it's a deliberate lie, so maybe it's better just to say it demonstrates a slightly absurd overconfidence in the accuracy of their figures:

Nestlé has promised £7m to its Aero brand and treble that for KitKat. In fact, shoppers are unlikely to have a break from advertising for the iconic brand with the series of "Perfect Break" ads set to be seen by 99.9% of the target audience 53 times in 2009.

How on earth can it be possible to make a statement with that degree of accuracy?

And then, within this very same article, there's a spectacularly inane comment from Craig Barker, sales director at Ferrero:

Boxed chocolate remains a strong category despite tough economic times. The amount of disposable income may diminish, but key gifting occasions such as birthdays, Christmas, Valentine's and Easter will continue, as will the propensity of the consumer to gift at these key times.

Brilliant. He's basically saying "there are still times when people will give chocolates to other people as presents and at these times when people will give chocolates to other people as presents, they will give chocolates as presents". Thanks for that, Craig.

Anyway, despite all this, and even only looking at the confectionery guide, I like learning all the specialist phrases used in industries like this. The "hunger" "needstate". "Multi-facings". "Impulse sub-section". "Pouch format". "Large-block"

Possibly The Grocer doesn't really qualify for this blog. It's a trade magazine, not a trade association, and their website doesn't offer much more than the print version so it's not like I'm concentrating on that either. But, so what? It's my blog. I can write what I want.