Oh so wonely!

Today I'm writing to you from my lonely little desk in an eerily quiet and still Rocket Park! (I'm sure I can hear your sympathetic oohs and aahs from here!) But do not fear, I haven't been abandoned or desserted - it's just so incredibly busy for Fantastic Fireworks at the moment that I have been left to man HQ on my tod for a bit while the others go off on all sorts of important engagements...

Hayley & Pascal are currently out at meetings in the Cambridge area, visiting some very interesting people to discuss potential displays... David meanwhile is on the 5th day off a highly intensive NEBOSH course, and will soon be the FF authority on all things to do with Health & Safety... Jon's out and about too, making last minute preparations for The Event Show next week (which we are all very excited about)... and last but no means least, Tom and Paul have worked super-hard all morning in order to have the afternoon off - and very well deserved it is too! So that just leaves little old me in the Display Team, Becky in Retail, and Ian in our sister company Confetti Magic - and working extremely hard we are too! (Just someone please remind me to hide the board-games and party food before the boss comes back later! *wink wink nudge nudge*)

25 and counting!

Hello everyone, Happy New Year, and Happy Burns Night to all our Scottish friends and Firers!

This is my first post of 2010 and, as promised in the Firers Times, should (hopefully!) be the first of many! Our 25th year has got off to a flying start so far. We've begun to revamp ourselves completely with a new logo & a fresh new look, in fact a whole new FF for the next 25 years! David and Steve have just got back from an exciting & fruitful trip to China, where they were on the hunt for all the most fabulous and innovative of the new fireworks for the year ahead. All Firers should now have received my Questionnaire; the new and improved FF Firers Database is shaping up nicely with all the responses I have received so far (thank you). The Event Production Show in Olympia's Grand Hall, London, takes us nicely into February (on Tues 2nd & Wed 3rd to be exact). Here you will find Hayley, Pascal, Jon and myself manning our fantastic new-look stand, logoed up and waiting for you with welcoming smiles and eager for a chat! If you happen to be in the area please do pop in to see us! Who knows, you may even walk away with one of the many bottles of champagne we will be giving away during our two day stint there...

We have so many more exciting plans to take us through the rest of the year and, unlike this famous quote from the aforementioned Mr. Burns, "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Go oft awry"... we know that we will see ALL of our plans through to a thrilling and successful finish!

I am certain that this anniversary year will be a year for us all to remember - roll on the next 25! x

Lost in translation

Being in China provides plenty of opportunity for amusement, if only from the translated public signs, (see picture). And only in China would you find a Yoshiba television in your hotel room, Dandy kitchen appliances around the home, a JBC digging holes and a Rolls Royce angel and grill stitched on to the front of what can only be described as a clown's car waiting to pick up some lucky bride. In fact today Steve and I drove past a restaurant called Fukang Pawn which provided a good laugh. And If that's not enough, for those of you with no friends theres always the ‘knob coffee bar’ where you can meet like minded people.

On a more serious note the people have been very welcoming and hospitable. The locals also seem to enjoy practicing their English as we walk past on the street by shouting out “hello” to which we respond with a very poorly pronounced ‘Nihouw’, one of only four words we’ve managed to learn in our time here.

This is my first time in China but it is Steve’s fourth visit and he is completely shocked at the amount of development that has taken place over the past few years. Towns that were once quite a small community have turned into bustling cities and everywhere you look something is being built. The speed of development is truly quite shocking. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Posted by David via the hub.

A vision for the future

As Steve & David touch down in Beijing, their work colleagues back home are hard at work on the company's blueprint for the future. While office staff across the country were forced to stay at home because of the snow, a dozen of our finest made it to to the Holiday Inn for a full day's agenda. Fantastic Fireworks celebrates 25 years of success this year and while I'm delighted to have got us this far, I wanted everyone to be able to have a say in how and where we go from here. My 'bible' for the day was a book called the E Myth - Why Most Small Businesses Fail. Its premise is that they fail because they don't have a plan. I have to admit that I didn' have a plan when I started the company back in 1985, in fact I didn't have a clue. We succeeded because the fireworks phenomenon was in its infancy and we were among the first to realise its potential. Twenty-five years on we face a new challenge: How to build on our past success in a rapidly changing market place. Firstly it is highly competitive, with hundreds of firework companies chasing the same targets, second our buying public are far more sophisticated, and third we are fighting against a recession. What then will make our clients hear us above the din of all those shouting for their business? Our agenda included topics such as how to provide a better, more consistent customer experience, how to make our displays even more fantastic and, in this health and safety conscious era, how we can maintain and improve our already highly regarded safety standards. There was no talk of sales targets or gross margins, just a united desire to live up to and beyond the name which got us here in the first place. We have a young, creative and energetic team all eager to make their mark. Adding a wealth of experience and expertise to the mix are our highly respected senior pyrotechnicians Ian Woodroof, Steve Boothman & Paul Roberts plus a legion of the most dedicated firers in the land. I'm proud to be leading this team on its first exciting steps into the next 25 years.

Out of the Fridge and into the Freezer

David and myself are packing our thermals for a visit to China and the coldest weather that Beijing has seen in 20 years, (and that means COLD). Tomorrow sees us set out on a mission to bring the best new products back to the UK for the 2010 season. We'll be updating the blog throughout the visit so stay tuned and watch this space!!!! (that is if the internet doesn't freeze over in the meantime)

Happy New Year!

Fri 1st Jan 2010, 5.50pm

Greetings to everyone on this first day of a new decade. Let's hope the rest of Fantastic Fireworks' 25th anniversary year continues in the same spectacular way we started it in Birmingham last night. It was our first New Year's Eve show in the city and we really wanted to make it sing and dance. We were lucky enough to have a perfectly clear, still night with a full moon (including a partial eclipse) and a fantastic location atop the 75m high Hyatt Regency hotel in Centenary Square. As thousands of revellers roared on the chimes of Big Ben our senior firer Paul Roberts signalled the start of the show with a series of mine lifts and a giant Happy New Year set-piece from the roof of the House of Sport. Hot on the heels of this came a 5-minute aerial spectacular fired from the Holliday St car park. As the show rocked on there was a universal gasp of amazement as the roof of the Hyatt suddenly burst into life. Hundreds of comets swept the sky in magical Mexican wave, back and forth, up and across until finally each of the three sites erupted in one awesome final salute. A great way to start the new year!