We’re proud to announce that our Port Salford site has once again achieved excellence by retaining its AA Grade in the 2025 BRCGS Storage and Distribution audit, conducted in June—with zero non-conformances for the second consecutive year.

This remarkable result reflects the unwavering dedication, professionalism, and high standards consistently demonstrated by the entire team. It’s a clear testament to the culture of quality and continuous improvement embedded across the site.

The BRCGS Standard is designed to reflect industry best practices and drive ongoing improvement through robust, risk-based product safety management systems. Its goal is to ensure the quality and safety of products during storage and distribution, while maintaining customer confidence through rigorous audit and certification processes.

Mark Stanton, General Manager at Port Salford, shared his appreciation:

“I’m delighted with the accreditation and the standards achieved by the team. The auditor’s closing comments were particularly pleasing and reflected positively on both the local and wider support teams for their consistent efforts in maintaining high standards at every level.”

A huge congratulations to everyone at Port Salford for this outstanding achievement. Your hard work, commitment, and attention to detail continue to set the benchmark for excellence across the business.

Over recent months our Great Bear colleagues at this site have been holding charity bingo sessions to raise important funds for this established and valuable local charity.

In March Great Bear colleagues, Matt Dams and Olivia Smedley visited Fairplay at Chesterfield where they were able to meet many people who benefit from their important services and had a first-hand  opportunity to see the great work the charity does for North Derbyshire.

During the visit Matt and Olivia presented a cheque on behalf of their Great Bear Markham Vale 2 colleagues for £6,430.20 which Fairplay will be using to help their Educational schemes for young children.

Fairplay was set up in 1992 by a group of parents who wanted accessible activities for their disabled children. The group set up a club where their children could attend during school holidays. The demand for the group was overwhelming and the group developed into an organisation with paid staff. The organisation has grown ever since, developing youth services as well as children’s and expanding into areas throughout North Derbyshire.

In 2009 Fairplay was successful in receiving funding to build its first centre in Chesterfield. The centre has been purpose built to ensure that all children and young people are able to access the facilities on offer. The centre was officially opened in July 2010 and features an activity hall, outdoor play area, meeting rooms, library, sensory room, kitchen, and changing places toilet.

Fairplay now offers services to young people up to aged 25 as well as a new pre-school parent support group for parents with children under 5. Fairplay continues to grow and develop in response to the needs of local families and currently supports over 400 families across the area.

www.fair-play.co.uk

This year, the depot has focused on 2 main charities; Melksham Food Bank and Designability (in particular their Wizzybug project), whilst maintaining their ongoing fundraising efforts for Macmillan Cancer Support with their annual Coffee Morning.

Throughout October and November, colleagues have donated ambient food items to Melksham Foodbank. The foodbank is there to provide practical, short-term help for individuals and families in need by offering food parcels with 3 days of food essentials. They also introduce those in need with the necessary advice and support services to help resolve issues in the long term. More information about the services offered and how you can get involved can be found at; melkshamfoodbank.org.uk

Whilst COVID has impacted some of the traditional fundraising pursuits, there have been plenty of fun activities throughout the year which have raised funds for national charity Designability for their Wizzybug project. Wizzybugg is an innovative powered wheelchair designed specifically for children under five who are living with cerebral palsy, spinal muscular atrophy, spina bifida or muscular dystrophy, as well as children with amputations or a rare developmental delay affecting their ability to walk.

Stock Controller, Sue Whiteford led the fundraising efforts by completing the Virtual London Marathon 2020 – having completed the main events in both 2018 and 2019. Other fundraising events included; ‘Guess the number of Easter eggs’, Easter raffle, selling sweet bags and are currently having a Christmas card sale.

You can find out more about the charity and the impact of the Wizzybug project by visiting; designability.org.uk

The Macmillan Coffee Morning is an annual event that is always popular at the site. People get involved in a number of ways from baking cakes and goodies themselves to donating tea and coffee to accompany the tasty treats. Others help with running the event on the day, donning their best salesperson impression and drumming up trade; it’s always a successful event and enjoyed by everyone. This year the event managed to raise £107 bringing the total raised through this event in five years to over £1250 for such a worthwhile cause.

If you’d like to donate to any of these causes, or if you have fundraising idea, please get in touch by emailing natalie.peacock@greatbear.co.uk

The beautifully designed 500ml aluminium bottles aren’t just aesthetically pleasing, they are also endlessly recyclable. The bottles, that clearly stand out from their competitors, bring a breath of fresh air to the shelves at Boots and Sainsbury’s. Their line doesn’t stop there, to accompany the new mouthwashes, customers are able to purchase a stainless steel cup (exclusive to Boots and www.wakencare.com), allowing them to reuse it again and again while getting the perfect amount of mouthwash each time.

Waken and their new line of products required a reliable, robust and fully tailored logistics solution. Waken first approached Great Bear with knowledge of our previous work with male grooming brand, Bulldog Skincare in late July 2019. Shortly after, a site visit to our Kettering depot was arranged and operational discussions began shortly after in August. The site started taking delivery of stock w/c 16^th September and re-work operations began the same week to facilitate outbound orders to Boots the following week.

As a business we needed to understand not only Waken’s product requirements, but also Waken as a company. We became familiar with their USP, company ethos and their distributor’s requirements. Team members from both sides worked extremely closely to ensure the launch deadline was met.

Team Members – Renata Jopek & Nicu Toma

Our site at Kettering faced several challenges in order to deliver a smooth Waken launch. A dedicated team was assigned to facilitate the launch incorporating Team Leaders, Shift Managers, the Operations Manager and the site’s General Manager.

“Although timelines have been tight, it has been an absolute pleasure to work directly with Batu Cavus and the Waken team on this implementation. I am especially proud of my own team’s interest, agility and diligence in their approach to successfully delivering this work stream. We look forward to seeing sales grow and working on our next milestone- Waken Ecommerce”, Steve Candelin, Kettering General Manager.

Not only were we focussed on providing perfect service for Waken but we had to guarantee no degradation to the service of our other clients which the team achieved flawlessly. So much so that the site achieved their objective in just 4 weeks allowing for the public to see the new range on retail shelves before the official launch date of 25^th October!

“It was a very quick project implementation and we were on shelf 12 days earlier than planned. We could not have reach this target without the great team at Great Bear Kettering.” Batuhan Cavus Head of Operations – Waken Mouthcare.

Waken say ‘Don’t just clean. Care’ and we at Great Bear can relate to that sentiment. We care about our client’s products, reputations and our ability in maintain these things. If you have a product that you wish to get to market with a company that cares about what is important to you get in touch today.

new.business@greatbear.co.uk

01829 772 200

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