Further strike action by Royal Mail workers starts from 12 noon on Thursday for 48 hours as the Communication Workers Union rallies the support of its members. This will be followed by a further 48 hour walk out by union members on October 8th & 9th unless a pay settlement can be reached. Union representatives have refused to accept Royal Mail’s offer of a 2.5 per cent basic pay increase and appear intent on wreaking havoc. Small direct businesses will be hit particularly hard by this new action with many expecting customer confidence to fall to an all time low as we approach the busiest season.

Scotts of Stow’s chief executive Nigel Swabey has made a raft of board appointments to reflect the needs of the group as it enters a new phase of growth. Keith Greasley is named Warehouse Operations & Logistics Director with Judi Fox taking the role of Group Brand Director for Scotts’ Premium & Performance Products division. Victoria Laws is now Group Brand Director with responsibility for buying and catalogue production within the Home, Garden & Gift Catalogue division. Allie Oldham is Group Marketing Director responsible for customer relationships across the entire group. Wendy Derbyshire is IT & e-Commerce Director, with Mike Smith as Group Finance Director & Company Secretary and Don Libey as Non-Executive Director.

Findel achieves record first half sales

Home shopping and educational supplies group Findel has reported strong sales increases for the half year to 30 September with all of its divisions making positive contributions. Home shopping was the star performer with a 59 per cent increase in sales over last year, of which 50 per cent were placed online. The group’s finance director David Dutton who had been with the group for 21 years retired this week and is replaced by Chris Hinton.

Fashion store chain New Look’s new website goes live this month with an initial offering of 1000 lines. Further lines, including menswear and childrenswear, will be added from January. The chain is bullish about its potential expecting that its online initiative will quickly eclipse the sales performance of its most successful store.

Chris Langley has resigned his post as chief executive of Jessops following falling sales and the departure of finance director Ian Harris. Langley will leave the chain in November.

Online grocery business Ocado in which John Lewis Partnership has a 30 per cent stake has recorded a loss of £43 million on sales of £217 million for the year to 3rd December 2006. The business has now lost in excess of £200 million since its launch.

From 25th October Tesco Direct will make some 300 women’s clothing lines from its Cherokee and F&F house brands available online. The offering will be found at www.clothingattesco.com, the chain’s revamped clothing website.

Online lingerie business Figleaves has recruited Aurelie de Troyer to the role of new business development manager. Troyer will focus primarily on international expansion of the business.

Former Experian marketing and business development director Gillian Buttree has been appointed marketing director by the Pets at Home store chain. She will be responsible for all store marketing and the business’ soon to launch transactional website.

With just days to go until the cut off date of 9th October, delighted clients are flooding the ECMOD offices with their nominations. Top categories to date are catalogue creative and design services and customer recruitment and media ….. currently lagging way behind is the IT solutions category … so what are you waiting for. This is your chance to say thank you to the suppliers who have gone the extra mile and provided you with consistently good service over the past year ….. go on don’t delay download the nomination form & be sure to get along to the ECMOD2007 Exhibition Hall on October 24th to see the Supplier of the Year Awards presented amid much fanfare and merrymaking from 5.45pm register to visit now.

The latest companies to confirm their involvement at ECMOD are The Black Hole, YUDU Media, UKChanges, Cybertill Ltd, The Insert House Ltd and Junction Solutions. With just six stands remaining and one Seminar Theatre slot, this year is set to be the biggest and best yet! Be sure to secure your involvement and reach all your potential customers in the catalogue, home shopping and multi-channel sector…For availability of stands and promotional opportunities contact Miles (miles@ecmod.com) or Casey (casey@ecmod.com): +44 (0) 1271 866112