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Recently, Sam, one of our Insurance Advisors from the Ipswich Contact Centre, took part in her children's childminder's annual summer trip as a volunteer! They enjoyed a fantastic day out at Pettitts Animal Adventure Park, making the most of the sunshine and all the activities on offer. At Hughes, we’re proud to support our people with two additional days of paid leave each year, dedicated to volunteering. Whether it’s getting involved in charity work, school fetes, or local community events, we encourage everyone to take the opportunity to give back to causes they care about. Sam is already looking forward to using her second volunteer day soon!
We’re officially open in our new Lowestoft location! This Saturday marked the grand opening of our brand new store at North Quay Retail Park. After relocating from our previous town centre location, we’re thrilled to welcome customers to a larger, more accessible space. The move allows us to showcase a wider range of products and deliver an even better shopping experience. We’ve also expanded our Lowestoft team to support the growth. Excitingly, this is our first store to feature our full rebrand – offering a fresh new look and feel that reflects the future of our brand. We are proud to have been serving Lowestoft for over 100 years! Come visit us and see what’s new.
Recently, the whole marketing team got together and spent the day going through their exciting plans for next financial year. In the evening, they tackled the spooky Twilight Manor escape room at Cluetopia. The team made a thrilling escape in just over 58 minutes, with only a few screams heard along the way! Afterward, they relaxed with a meal and drinks at The Botanist in Ipswich, sharing great conversation and plenty of laughs. To end the night, they hit up a karaoke bar. While no one grabbed the mic, they couldn’t resist showing off a few dance moves and enjoying a casual sing-along.
One of our employees, Miloni, recently got married, and we want to send a big congratulations her way! The wedding celebration stretched over four unforgettable days, filled with love, tradition, and vibrant moments. The 4 days included a Mehendi ceremony, Garba and Sangeet celebrations, the wedding ceremony, and a Reception. It sounds like it was an incredible celebration, it must have been a truly special time for Miloni and everyone who joined in the festivities. At Hughes, we offer a variety of staff benefits, including contributions for weddings and civil partnerships. As a family-owned business, we recognise the importance of supporting not just our staff, but also their extended families. We're proud to offer this benefit as one of the many perks aimed at supporting our employees, recognizing both the excitement these milestones bring and the costs they can involve.
This month, we launched a virtual course for all our shop staff focused on cooking technology. The course covers various topics such as fuel types, hob types, oven technology, and more. It's just one example of the ongoing training we provide to ensure our team can offer the best possible experience and advice to our customers. Looking ahead, our staff will have the exciting opportunity to meet with some of our top suppliers, exploring a variety of products and their features. This will give our team valuable insights into the latest appliances, helping them to stay updated on the latest features in the electrical market.
At the end of December, we celebrated two employees marking 25 years of service at Hughes! Steve began his journey with us over 25 years ago as a van assistant. He then moved on to managing stock at one of our depots, using his trusted forklift to unload lorries in all kinds of weather! Today, Steve works in one of our workshops, overseeing the ordering of parts for our engineers and stores. Gill joined Hughes on December 20, 1999, working part-time in the accounts department. In 2004, she took on the responsibility of managing the direct debits function. Throughout her time here, Gill has gained valuable experience in shop support and ledger. Fun fact: she even had a brief stint with Hughes in 1997, where she assisted in scanning paper contracts. We want to send our congratulations to Gill and Steve on reaching this incredible milestone. To show our appreciation for their dedication they both received a £300 dining voucher, we hope they enjoy a well-deserved meal. We look forward to celebrating many more years with them both and look forward to giving this reward to many of our other employees in the future.
Earlier this week to celebrate Christmas, the team at our Thetford warehouse participated in a festive chocolate hunt. Reindeer and Santa's were hidden throughout the depot and offices. Anyone who discovered a reindeer had to snap a selfie and enjoyed a delicious festive chocolate treat. If you were fortunate enough to find a Santa, you got to choose from a selection of prizes! Congratulations to everyone who was lucky enough to find one!
Some of our Hughes team recently took part in The Benjamin Foundations sleep out 2024. They have raised over £1,500 for this great cause so far! This fundraising campaign raises awareness of youth homelessness through encouraging supporters to spend one night sleeping outside. Money raised from the campaign goes towards their Sleep Out fund, this can be accessed by young people in the charities housing services, to support their lifestyle or access new opportunities. We want to give a big well done to all who took part and thank our staff for volunteering their time to support this great charity.
Here at Hughes we have recently moved into a new 153,000 sqft warehouse and distribution centre in Birmingham! This joins our warehouses in Thetford and Oldbury. This upgrade enables us to increase our stock levels nearly fourfold compared to our Oldbury facility. We can’t wait to see it fill up in the coming months and see how it improves our efficiency. This photo was taken with one of our stock check drones called LISA (lightweight intelligent stock assistant), this helps our staff to do a stock check when our products are stacked high and deep.
The Team at Hughes are all incredibly proud to have recently completed a 57-mile walk in 24 hours! We walked from Felixstowe to Lowestoft to raise money for The Benjamin Foundation, which is our chosen charity. We raised a grand total of over £35,500! Our Retail Director Jack had this to say about the experience: "I can unequivocally say that this was the toughest physical challenge I've ever undertaken, and I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to endure it with. Your selflessness and mutual support were nothing short of inspiring. Thank you all for being as wonderfully crazy as I am to take on this adventure.".
