Matthew here! Read all my founders journal posts.
Ugh, with inflation hitting 11.1% in October we've been getting a wave of notifications from our suppliers of price increases. We've worked so hard this year to avoid price rises, we've even managed to reduce some!, by making changes in the business. A few examples below!
- We've fitted trackers to our 11 vans to sloooow them down a LOT and save on fuel, insurance and wear and tear.
- With patient attention we've managed to increase the number of jobs each of engineers completes a year without increasing their hours worked.
- We'll soon buy our diesel in bulk after a big investment, we're building our own mini filling station!
- We've adopted Lidl as biscuit supplier of choice for the office. Amazing value AND their jammy dodger rip offs are better than the original. Extraordinary!
Despite all this though price increases in January are coming on cooker sales, conversions, re-enamelling, deep clean/upgrades and removals. It won't be an identical figure across the board but it will be chunky!
With the energy price cap increasing in April we're expecting to be VERY busy, the payback time on the cost of converting fossil cookers to electric has never been shorter!
One of our priorities is the wages of our 40+ strong team, particularly those relatively lower paid. As pay reviews have taken place this year everyone has benefitted from rises well above the national average. The reason this little business of mine is successful is the deep well of knowledge we possess in our staff. When you use Blake & Bull you get access to logistics specialists, an incredible operations team, skilled engineers, deep customer services knowledge and much more.
No one can work effectively and happily when stressed about money so the increase to the government minimum wage from £9.50 to £10.42 won't affect us. We're a 'Living Wage Foundation' employer and pay a minimum of £10.90 an hour already. This is set at a level that meets everyday needs.
When you choose Blake & Bull you are choosing a company working hard to be efficient, maintain an incredible service and pay its staff a fair wage. It's a combination that has worked so far!
