Representatives from Thames Water will today join SOLO to celebrate the planting of 30 saplings at Churchend Primary School in Tilehurst. Professor David Bellamy's organisation "Tree Appeal" has supplied the trees which are paid for by SOLO and Thames Water as part of a joint effort and the companies are delighted to be able to make this contribution to a local Primary School.

The area around the school has seen a lot of development recently with the relocation of the Avenue School and the trees will help to provide screening and shade for Churchend's "quiet area".

Children and staff at Churchend will join with staff from SOLO and Thames Water to put on their wellingtons and roll up their shirt sleeves to plant trees together at the school. This special event will Include a short talk to the children to explain to them why we need trees in our environment and how local businesses both large and small can support this.

SOLO has been awarded ISO 14001 Environmental Management certification to sit alongside their ISO9001 Quality certification.

Sue Owen, the company's managing director, said: 'I believe we must adopt robust and sustainable environmental policies and procedures as our customers are increasingly requesting information and confirmation of our environmental management status during contractual negotiations.

Our achievement today is a clear demonstration of the company's commitment and a willingness to incorporate these standards within our day-to-day operations. We will, of course, continue our efforts to improve environmental processes and enhance our services to ensure that our clients receive the best advice and service without damaging the environment".

SOLO achieved ISO 14001 accreditation within a tight timeframe. Having established many internal processes in advance, the company was able to fast track and drive the necessary changes and improvements through the business in a little over twelve months.

ISO14001 covers environmental management compliance and control, including tasks such as operational controls, environmental records, correct waste management, communications, training and monitoring and measurement.



With a view to building an enlarged services company, the Directors at SOLO are delighted to announce today the acquisition of Reading based Informed Imaging and that both companies (SOLO Mailing Services and Informed Imaging) will be moving under the corporate umbrella of SOLO Managed Services UK Ltd from 1st April 2009.

Informed Imaging and SOLO Mailing Services have worked together for many years on numerous projects, and have often shared a mutual customer base, each using particular services and expertise to fulfil customer requirements.

In essence SOLO Managed Services UK Ltd will be establishing a distinct imaging division within their range of data services, fully utilising the current operations staff at Informed Imaging. From the end of March the Informed Imaging team will be based in Reading with the existing SOLO team. As part of our "Chocolate" mailing campaign SOLO was pleased to donate 5kg bars of Cadbury's Dairy Milk to new customers who placed orders as a result of the campaign. SOLO was very pleased to learn today that one of these bars was used as part of a charity raffle to raise funds for Buckinghamshire based charity Wheel Power and was won by Aylesbury Training Group student Tonderai Mashatamombe who is training to become an engineer! ATG deliver training across a wide variety of industries ranging from vocational industrial training to social care. With a 40 year history and over 90 employees they pride themselves in providing high quality training for 16 - 24 year olds.

Wheel Power is the national charity for wheelchair sport and helps these people and many others with disabilities to achieve their sporting dreams. WheelPower provides accessible facilities at the Stoke Mandeville Stadium, the "home of Wheelchair Sport" including an Athletics Arena, Sports Hall, Indoor Bowls Centre, Swimming Pool and Fitness Centre. On site accommodation in the Olympic Lodge and the Olympic Village is suitable for a wide range of disabilities and is complemented by meeting and conference facilities and catering for events of all sizes.

News Article For some time the SOLO sales team has been asked to provide an eMail service to our existing Direct Mail customers. Mindful of the fact that there are major players already in this market SOLO sought to differentiate their offering and produce a value added proposition for SOLO clients.

Hybrid DM is SOLOs answer to "which is better, traditional DM or eDM". Hybrid DM encompases all of the positive aspects of eMail without losing any of the impact or delivery assurance of the traditional Direct Mail product.

We are excited to announce the availability of this entirely targeted and relevant service and we invite you to take a few moments to read our page on Hybrid DM and to understand why SOLO is pulling ahead with this groundbreaking product.
On Monday 6th April 2009 Royal Mail's new prices will come into effect. If you would like to look up the new rates please visit our postal rates page.

The 1st Class Letter price will increase to 39p for stamps and 36p for meter / PPI
The 2nd Class Letter price will increase to 30p for stamp and 25p for meter / PPI

Royal Mail Special Delivery® Next Day will increase by 35p to £4.95 for mail up to 100g.

In order to counter some of these price rises SOLO will be offering Royal Mail's new environmentally friendly Sustainable Mail™ service. SOLO can help you to meet the Royal Mail's specifications by using environmentally friendly materials and reducing the amount of waste mail while at the same time saving money on postage.

From April 2009 SOLO will offer Mailsort 120, Mailsort 700 and Mailsort 1400 services with the new Sustainable option*

* Subject to Postcomm's 2009 consultation on Sustainable Mail™
It is clear that the majority of people today are concerned with environmental matters and most people are trying to do their bit to reduce waste and save energy. Direct Mail is often cited as one of the greatest polluters and is blamed in large part for the ever increasing mountains of rubbish seen in landfills. SOLO has been accused of hypocrisy in our attempts to "go green" when we are responsible for "all that junk mail". However, the public's perception is not always so well informed.

In a 2007 survey on Direct Mail and the Environment conducted by Pitney Bowes it was discovered that consumers greatly over estimate the environmental impact of Direct Mail. Of the 1000 adult men & women who took part, 48% thought that advertising mail from households made up more than half of the country's household waste. Another 36% said that it amounted to just over a third of that waste. In reality advertising mail is responsible for just 2% of all household waste (DMA).

Other interesting statistics were that 68% of responders said that they would have a higher opinion of Direct Mail if it were printed on recycled paper; 67% if the industry planted trees to offset paper production; 70% said their opinion of Direct Mail would improve if undeliverable mail were kept to a minimum with correct addressing capabilities; These are some of the initiatives that SOLO is keen to develop with the introduction of its Environmental Management System and seeking ISO14001 accreditation.
The announcement today that the Royal Mail has missed its operational targets of 93% of mail delivered on time has caused consumer watchdog, Postwatch, to declare the giant "Blown off course".

According to Postwatch only 82% of first class mail arrived on time in 2007 with second class mail turning in a much more respectable 95.7% on time delivery.

The missed targets were blamed on industrial action by postal staff and are in sharp contrast to the improving figures shown pre 2007 when delivery punctuality was at an all time high!

It is important to remember though, that the short shock that any industrial action has on delivery figures very quickly pulls the "average delivery" down sharply and removing these few incidents from the picture would present an all too different take on timely deliveries.

The moral of this news must surely be that second class mail offers better value for money! An 11.7% better chance of being received on time and a lower cost! Who says the Royal Mail don't offer value for money any more?!