Basingstoke Design Agency The Escape have recently been appointed as one of L&Q Groups lead agencies after an eight-way pitch. New Head of Communications, Chris Middleton was keen to reduce the agency roster to a more streamlined operation, only working with two or three agencies max and The Escape were invited to pitch their ideas to the UK’s largest housing organisation.

To become part of their preferred supply chain, The Escape were invited to pitch for the re-design of L&Q’s internal corporate magazine, Inhouse, with two other agencies, including the incumbent agency.

The pitch went so well, that the marketing department invited them back in to present their ideas to the Board of Directors as they didn’t feel they could do justice to such a well-presented and strategic concept.

Jonathan Wickers, Communications Officer from said,

The strength of their presentation, the designs, the concept on how the magazine should be written and read along with their point-of-sale ideas were substantially more polished than their competitors for the same pitch

Simon Calderbank, sales director from The Escape, added:

Going for any new pitch is exciting, especially to a prospect with such a large potential for our business. But, our creatives made the presenting bit easy with some great work and the client loved the ideas.

We hope to build on this success with L&Q and develop in-roads into more large organisations across the south as our creative capabilities continue to grow.

With the emergence of dominant competition from China and Eastern Europe, many companies are looking at ways of reducing lead-times of getting products to market, increasing profitability and reducing the capital and manpower costs associated with the global context of manufacturing.

The nature of using a supplier base operating across different cities, countries and continents continues to be a logistical challenge for businesses.  So, can good customer service be achieved without detriment to quality and customer satisfaction?

Entrepreneur and founder of the Magellan Group, Damian Hessian says an emphatic yes! He explains the rationale behind his businesses approach:

Magellan Group has developed a ’single source’ solution and encompasses a broad range of services which include: Product Manufacture, eCommerce and Web Store Internet Solutions, Commercial Print, Material Management, Design & Prototyping, Media Duplication, Merchandising, Packaging, Order Processing, Kitting, Assembly & Fulfilment, Warehousing and Distribution.

We have built the business model around solving the problems associated with the supply chain delivery.  By adopting an on-demand model this has enabled us to offer a cost effective approach to producing materials.

Our philosophy is ‘we take the risks so our clients don’t have to’ and so by maintaining stock levels and producing on-demand, we eliminate the potential overheads and thereby reduce wastage.

Magellan Group focus on maintaining long-term relationships with their clients and through proven business practices; they have been able to retain a loyal client base for more than fifteen years. They are based in Daneshill, Basingstoke.

Craig Killick and Robert Jones, founders of local design and web agency The Escape, will be pedaling hard next week as they aim to raise £4,000 for Action Medical Research cycling from London to Paris.

The four-day challenge sets off from London and will cover 300 miles as the pair head towards Newhaven, then across from Normandy to Paris, finishing alongside the Eiffel Tower the day before the finish of the world famous Tour de France.

The pair set up The Escape in Basingstoke in 1998 and this is their third cycling challenge as “Team Escape”. Craig commented:

We’ve have been involved with charity cycle rides before but only up to 55 miles in one go. This ride is four solid days of 60-90 mile rides so should be very tough.

It’s for a great cause though and our friends, families and business colleagues have been very generous and we feel confident we will reach our target.

You can find out more about the cycling challenge and Action Medical Research Charity on their website at www.teamescape.co.uk.

Robert Jones (left) and Craig Killick (right) - Team Escape.