Advent Calendars and Christmas Trees!

We’re almost half way through our countdown to Christmas and we've been continuing with our daily post of the Airquee Advent Calendar, where we've highlighted some amazing products, fantastic ranges and even had a competition with a lucky winner! We will be continuing this all the way up to Christmas Day, so keep your eyes on our Facebook and Twitter pages so you can see all the information as it’s posted, and maybe even win some c--- AHEM! I’ll stop before I get too far ahead of myself.

We've also got our office looking festive now that Ollie, Sue and Andrew have put up our Christmas tree. Although, from how it actually happened, Andrew brought the boxes in and Sue and Ollie did the decorating! Daily Christmas music and some decoration makes me think how it really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas, if the countdown wasn't enough!

Next week is the last working week of the year for our wonderful Romanian team, so we’re busy here in the UK making sure that everything is done so we can all go eat, drink and be merry throughout Christmas! Keep your eyes on our Facebook and Twitter for the remaining days of our Christmas Countdown, and we here at Airquee, where if you can imagine it we can make it, will be giving you content right through until the big day!

The Countdown to Christmas!

It has officially begun! Well, here at Airquee the countdown to Christmas has started, and we plan to celebrate it with you on Facebook and Twitter with a daily countdown, with offers being announced and happening until the big day. We’ve already released the day 1 offer, and we have a whole host of more to come!

The sales team were on a team building event on Friday, and we were held the fort answering all queries which were asked! It certainly kept us busy. They returned on Monday fighting fit and in complete sync! It’s certainly inspired the rest of us to work even closer together after seeing their excellent collaborative skills!

Meanwhile, here in the office in Cwmbran it’s business as usual. The factory in Romania has been closed Monday and today for their national holidays of St Andrew’s Day and National Day. We have certainly missed not having some members of staff not being around and it shows how much of a collaboration the creation of your fantastic products are!

Keep an eye out on our Facebook and Twitter pages for news on each day’s upcoming deal! And as always, remember that if you can imagine it, Airquee can make it. Let the countdown commence! 

Airquee on Tour and the Holidays Are Coming!

Happy Wednesday people! It’s been a while since the last blog post, and I know how much you all love it, so here’s the marketing man to tell you about the latest goings on at Airquee, and reminding you of the upcoming dates! (Does anyone really need reminding?)

The first bit of news; Airquee has gone stateside! Well, our Sales Director Kerry has.  Attending IAAPA 2015 in Orlando, Florida, she had the chance to see some of the fantastic work people across the pond are doing and was even roped in to work on a stand over there! Serious Hirers from the UK were in abundance and many are customers of Airquee so Kerry helped them to have some fun during the weekend! 

We’ve had regular updates and I’ve made sure that you know what we do by updating our fantastic Facebook page with all the information as we get it! Being afraid of flying Kerry managed to make her way into the cockpit of the plane and the Pilots explained the physics of flying to her and then allowed her to take a selfie with the pilot! She certainly is cheeky or is it resourceful; she seems to live by the motto ‘If you don’t ask, you don’t get.’

As for the upcoming date, you all know what it is right? Right?! Time to all start opening your advent calendars and begin the countdown to Christmas! We’ve had some excellent products fit for the season being created by our fabulous factory in Romania! We’re talking about Christmas more and more often in the office now, and I’m sure it won’t be long until the trimmings and baubles will be making an appearance. We also have an array of Christmas themed inflatables for sale in our new Stock pages on our website, with the prices all updated!

The thermometer dropping won’t slow us down here at Airquee, where if you can imagine it, we can make it!

Ireland, New Members, Christmas!

The Northern Ireland show was last weekend, and the last show of the end-year events season in the Republic of Ireland is almost here! It’s been an extremely busy season for our Operations Director Phil H, who has been to every show, along with Mark they have travelled far and wide.  The most recent show in Northern Ireland had them joined by Adam and Erika from our Romania office, and it proved to be our most successful yet! With 15 inflatables along with the visitors we had from hirers, leisure centres and local authorities, it was a great chance to see some of our favourite customers and meet some new faces.

We’ve got new members of the Airquee team!

The Lady McIvor hand-picked them herself, loading them up with contents of her car, and making other staff members jump while they think we have a silent guest (I think she is secretly in the spirit of Halloween).

In more serious news, the sales team has grown once more, with the addition of Sol! In the ever growing team Sol has picked up a wealth of information from now-sales-veteran Wayne, and his second in command and no-longer-newest Ollie!

I mentioned the spirit of Halloween earlier, but let’s not forget that the festive season will soon be here! It will be less than 8 weeks until Christmas, so make sure you don’t do my trick and leave it until the last minute. We have a huge amount of festive products which are perfect for the season of good tidings. And now it’s time to sign off and have to work here at Airquee, where if you can imagine it, we can make it. I think I may go un-make the pretend people in the corner so they don’t keep making me jump…

Shows, Visitors and Ireland!

Hello you wonderful people! It’s been a little while since the last blog post, and we have been running at full steam here at Airquee with our long – and exciting – stretch of back-to-back shows! Straight after the journey to the EAS in Sweden, which proved to be an excellent chance for Phil H and Mark to meet some great people and customers from Europe, it was the Leisure Supplies Show in Coventry. Due to the size of this excellent event, we had a large number of our staff attend to deal with the number of people wanting to ask about our products. On the first day we had Mark, Phil M, Phil H and Kerry joined by Tilda, Erika and Julia from our amazing Romania team! Ollie was there to join them on Monday and give them a helping hand with the number of visitors wanting to know more about our products. There were all busy in the evenings processing all the orders to make sure customers got their eagerly anticipated products as soon as possible!

Most recently was our very own Cwmbran Show held at our new HQ where we had a variety of inflatables for people to come and witness. Included among this was also our show room, which will always have a variety of our products set up for you to see for yourself whenever you visit us here! It was a busy 4 days for the staff here thanks to children dragging their parents along, providing excellent feedback from our chief critics!  Several members working throughout the event and the weekend to make it the best it could be with the excellent customer service which, along with the amazing smells from the burger van, proving to be a huge hit! Our newest sales person Ollie was eager to help visitors with answers to all questions asked!

We were also lucky enough to have a visit from Barclays Bank who are preparing a media release. Describing us as “champions of local business” they were extremely pleased at the strides we have made in recent times! The company director Phil M himself remarked how the “quality of our product through our innovative approach and commitment to meeting customer needs” is what has fuelled this fantastic growth. As I have a habit of letting you know, we have exciting plans here at Airquee and this is just one of the reasons to watch this space! Due to the interview taking place during the show, we had the fortune of showing members of Barclays themselves how fun and exciting our inflatables are!

This weekend we are travelling across the Irish Sea to set up shop for our Northern Ireland Show! Thanks to Peter Campbell and Cooley Castles we will be having a selection of our inflatables up and available for you to see from 10am until 6pm on Saturday 24^th and Sunday 25^th. The directors Phil H and Mark will be there to welcome you and answer your questions, and will be joined from some of our fantastic staff from our Romania factory; Adam from Dispatch and Erika from Production! We are then teaming up with Bounce Ireland to show our products to the Republic of Ireland in our ROI Show on Saturday the 7^th November!

So much to tell you about the events happening here, where if you can imagine it, Airquee can make it , but this is a blog and not a novel, so some stories will have to be told another day! We will be dealing with all orders from the events now the events season for the inflatable industry is drawing to a close, then on to preparing for the next batch! Busy, fun and exciting times!

Shows, New People and More Shows!

Our small lull in the busy events season is over and we will be travelling far and wide over the coming weeks to spread the word of Airquee. We are leaving today for the long journey to the Euro Attractions Show (EAS) held in Gothenburg, Sweden from Tuesday 6^th October until Thursday to 8^th October! This will be an excellent chance for us to meet some of our customers from other regions of Europe who aren’t so close to where our head office is based. Our directors Mark and Phil H will be there with associates to meet and greet as many people as they can, and after last week’s astounding success at LIW along with the popularity last year, they will have a lot on their plates! Don’t forget to bring stacks of business cards for our prize draw – be in for a chance at Airquee’s Golden Ticket and an amazing discount!

Here in Cwmbran, it is the end of the second week for our newest member of the warehouse team, Leon (you may have noticed him joining Kerry’s birthday party last week)! We’ve been so busy with preparing your orders for dispatch we have had to expand the team again. Airquee just keep getting bigger! Krzys and Jac have been showing him the ropes and he is settling in well, and along with show preparations (we have some fun games and events planned!) he has had a busy induction!

All of our warehouse team are busy preparing our showroom for all our fantastic plans for the Cwmbran show held here on Friday 16^th October until Monday 19^th October, so be sure to come and experience their efforts paid off! Our show takes place towards the end of our busy show period, there is the Leisure Supplies Show held in Coventry on Sunday 11^th October and Monday 12^th October. You will also get the chance to see our hot-off-the-press new brochure at all of these shows!

It’s back to preparations and business as usual now here, where if you imagine it, Airquee can make it. Be sure to experience some of what we have to offer at one of the dates above!

LIW, Lulls and Friday Fuel

Happy Friday! We’ve had an excellent and exciting week here at Airquee. The first show in our end-of-year show season, Leisure Industry Week (LIW) was this week and we had the chance to meet some fantastic people. Our newest member Ollie whet his feet, along with mentor Wayne at the show on Wednesday and learned a lot about the people in the industry and had a fantastic chance to meet and greet some of you! Now back in the office, Kerry is treating everyone here to a mini party and cake, celebrating her birthday tomorrow!

We now have a small lull in the shows where we have chance to fine tune the upcoming experiences. We will then be having shows back to back, to back. To back! It will be a busy month from here on out with the EAS held in Gothenburg, Sweden from Tuesday 6^th October until Thursday 8^th October. This will be followed by the Leisure Supply Show in Coventry on Sunday 11^th October and Monday 12^th October. Then the chance for you to come see our fantastic showrooms in Cwmbran! We will be having our open weekend from Friday 16^th October until Monday 19^th October! Following this will be our Airquee Northern Ireland Open Weekend on Saturday 24^th October and Sunday 25^th October.

As you can see, an extremely busy time for us with lots of travelling to meet and greet our excellent customers! Wayne has been kind enough to bring in some ‘family’ branded Barry’s tea! With a busy office, Friday Fuel in the form of tea will help us motor along with preparations while still running the office as usual, answering any questions you have and working full steam with production!

We’re all working hard on everything to make the best possible products for you here at Airquee, where if you can imagine it, we can make it. Visit us at one of the dates above and you will see it! 

LIW is almost here!

Less than 24 hours until we will be at LIW! We’ve been busy preparing and we are bristling with excitement at showing you what we have planned and a small amount of what we can do. Today our directors Phil H and Phil M will be travelling up to The NEC in Birmingham setting up the exhibition. Be sure to come and visit us and we can answer all your questions on our fantastic array of inflatables!

In other events happening here at Airquee, our team has once again increased in size! We are pleased to welcome Ollie to our sales team who started last week. He’s already been coached by the previous new member of the sales team, Wayne! We are determined to provide you the best service we possibly can and our constant increase of staff needed to shows how our well-designed and well-manufactured products are exactly what you all want. Ollie will have a chance to meet some of our excellent customers and industry veterans when he and Wayne make their way to LIW on Wednesday and join Phil H and Kerry in answering all your questions.

Events starting and an expanding team here. If you can imagine it, Airquee can make it, so come visit us at LIW and we can tell you all about it! There will be many chances to see us in the upcoming weeks. If you can’t make it to LIW, come to our Cwmbran open days are 16^th – 19^th October! 

Busy Times and Goodbyes

The events season draws ever closer still, and here at Airquee we are putting the finishing touches on everything we need to provide the best show we can! The first stop on the itinerary is the LIW, Leisure Industry Week, held at the NEC in Birmingham on the Tuesday 22^nd September and Wednesday 23^rd September. The LIW is described as “the heartbeat of the UK leisure industry” and we intend to show how our innovation and expertise are perfect for any leisure business, and we will be showcasing a new product and range! Make sure you come along and to get the first look and a good deal!

In other, and sadder news this week, today is the final day of Helen, who previously wrote all the blog posts and social media. She has prepared us well with sarcasm and what we need to know and her contributions at Airquee will continue to help us be the best we can be! We can continue to show you how amazing we are at more upcoming shows.

A short post this week, but those finishing touches for the shows must be completed. More news from us here in the upcoming weeks where if you can imagine it, Airquee can make it. Soon you will be able to see some of our new products exclusively at the shows, just a small fraction of what we can do!

Full Swing Preparation!

It’s getting closer to the events season in the inflatable and leisure industries and here at Airquee we have been busy preparing everything so that you can fully experience our wonderful products! More on this will be revealed in the coming weeks, but the dates of the shows coming up are:

• LIW Leisure Industry Week on the 22^nd and 23^rd September
• EAS Euro Attractions Show from 6^th to 8^th October
• Leisure Supplies Show on the 11^th and 12^th October
• Airquee’s Open Weekend here at Cwmbran from the 16^th until the 19^th October
• Airquee’s Northern Ireland Open Days on 24^th and 25^th October
• And a NEW Ireland show with more details to follow!

As you can see, that’s a lot of shows and a lot of work we have to do to prepare!

Our excellent and talented staff in our factory are back from their annual holiday on Monday and it’s straight back into work mode as they work on creating all your amazing products. We’re already fully booked in September with orders, so hurry up and get your orders in to avoid a wait!

Here at Cwmbran the Directors are away from the office – back to school for them! Phil, Mark, Kerry, Phil H, as well as Adrian and Mariane from the factory are all on a training course in Bristol for the day. The warehouse staff are also having some in house training. As we’re getting bigger we want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to get better as well! 

But we’re all still busy in the main office, with Andrew working through repairs, and Sue answering all your queries over the phone while arranging dispatch. As always, Carole and Wayne are ready and waiting in the sales department, ready to help you chose the perfect inflatable! We're all excited and getting prepared for the upcoming weeks!

So - training, preparation and back-to-work for us here, where if you can imagine it, Airquee can make it. Lots of busy and exciting times coming up so stay tuned!

Exciting Times, Hellos and Goodbyes!

It’s been a busy week for us here at Airquee. If you haven’t heard about the exciting news from earlier this week, we very proudly announced that Airquee Limited has acquired the Air Inflatables name, trademark and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Thank you to everyone for their encouragement and support, we are all looking forward to working with the brand.

Our new accountant Clare started this week, so we would love to give her a great warm welcome to the company! Already she is becoming a valued member of the Airquee team, doing the essential training with Phil H (who is extremely glad of the assistance), and adding her expertise to the Accounts department. She has also done the wonderful task of making everyone tea on occasion!

This week was also the final week for our visitors from Romania, with Tim leaving us for his long journey home. We were sorry to see him leave and for us newer members of staff it has given us some valuable insight into dispatch. We said our sad farewells and Sue gave him a big cwtch – a Welsh hug for those unsure of what it means – and Tim will be spending today travelling home and then having a well-deserved holiday. If you need any help with final payments or dispatch until he and Adam return, please contact Keiren or Sue and they will be able to help you.

Today we also say goodbye to our junior CAD designer Harrison as well. We’re all sad to see him go and his Friday dance will be missed. We hope that he has great luck for the future!

We’re getting further on planning our shows and our showroom is shaping up nicely for our October show here in Cwmbran!

An eventful week for us here at Airquee, and at the end of a successful week we have been stung here by the IT failure at HSBC! This has caused delays to the pay of our employees, so we had to put a bit more work into getting our wages - see our new mini film "Anything for a wage", starring Lady Kerry McIvor (she's really getting into the tester role isn't she)!

A long post this week, and a lot to talk about here at Airquee, where if you can imagine it, Airquee can make it. More exciting times to come so watch this space!

Air Inflatables Press Release

Airquee Ltd and Air Inflatables Limited are pleased to announce the recent acquisition of the name, trademark and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of Air Inflatables Limited by Airquee Ltd. 

Airquee is extremely proud and excited to have this opportunity to work with the Air Inflatables brand. Air Inflatables was the company where Airquee Sales Director Kerry McIvor first cut her teeth in the inflatables industry in 2009. She believes that with Airquee’s purchase of the Air Inflatables name, trademark and Intellectual Property Rights, etc, the time is right to continue the excellent track record of the brand and bring a new lease of life to what is an already proven and popular range of products.

Airquee will work extremely hard to ensure that all customer enquiries related to the above announcement are dealt with seamlessly. Warranty enquiries on all Air Inflatables products sold prior to 31^st August 2015 will be dealt with by Inflatable World Leisure, who will also carry out any arising repairs. Kerry will be happy to receive any calls and questions regarding this matter and the whole of the Airquee Team look forward to keeping you abreast of the exciting developments we have planned for the brand.

You can contact Kerry directly on 07990 766129 or via the main office 0117 9414 918 Option 1 and by emailing: kerry@airquee.co.uk.

Holidays and business as usual!

After their excellent work on creating an amazing array of inflatables, the majority of employees at our Romania factory this week went on a much deserved break! In fact, they should ALL be on a summer holiday but I'm sure I've seen some of them pop up on Skype this week...The factory will re-open on Monday 7th September.

But that doesn't stop our offices here in Cwmbran from being busy as usual! Our Sales and Design teams (still based in Bristol) have been visiting the Cwmbran office this week and even though we've got the larger space it can still get pretty crowded!

We've also been joined by Adam and Tim from the factory, as they continue to provide their great service ensuring the delivery of the inflatables from our warehouse to you, throughout the factory holiday. Adam has now gone back to Romania, and left his brother Tim in charge of the UK Dispatch. Their visit has been really useful as always, reviewing and improving our processes between departments!

This week we also had another visitor from the factory. Zsolt is the graphic designer from our Romanian Design team. Along with Mark, Phil M, Phil H and Kerry he has been redesigning our brochure – so we will have a brand new one which will be available for you all at the upcoming leisure shows!

Speaking of the shows, we’re making time in our hectic Airquee days to get through all the preparation and organisation that goes into them! 

First stop, on the 22-23rd September we'll be at the Leisure Industry Week (LIW), at the NEC Birmingham, UK.

Next show is on the 6-8th October, the European Attractions Show (EAS), this year held in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Then you can find us on the 11-12th October at the Leisure Supplies Show (LSS), in Coventry, UK.

Saving the best for last this year, we'll be doing our Airquee shows in October! 

From the 16-19th October we invite you all to come along to play on our fantastic products in our amazing new home! We'd love to see you at Airquee's Open Weekend in Cwmbran, Wales. 

And then for the 24-25th October we're at our Ireland Open Day, in the usual place of Beragh, Northern Ireland.

We're also already getting ready for INPAS in January 2016! 

If you can imagine it. Airquee can make it. And with the all these upcoming events you can see for yourself!

Location, location, location!

Disco Dome Airtime

You’ve all heard of our fantastic Disco Domes bouncy castles, right? Now you can also see them in action on an episode of the BBC show Don’t Tell the Bride! An excellent way to get the party started and all the guests showed their eagerness to get bouncing on our amazing product - it just shows how brilliant of an addition it is for any party. It is set up in a hall, but the product is also excellent for outdoors; have your party outside with fresh air!

Also in our new range for August is our brand new 6 metre Disco Dome Bouncy Castle! Suitable for up to 10 people at once, almost double our original Disco Dome! Head over to the Airquee website for all the details on our product, and find out how you could rave and bounce at your next big event!

Settling in at Cwmbran

We’re on to our fourth week here at the new site in Cwmbran, time sure flies! It’s business as usual with customer collections on a daily basis. We have had several compliments on the ease of access to the site - with no need to go through any city to get here and no busy traffic to navigate! Customers from the Midlands and the North have even said how much easier it is to collect from this location.

Out in the warehouse we are all settled in  - with the dispatch of your fantastic products never stopping thanks to all the hard work of the people in the warehouse and our factory in Romania! We've also just replenished some of our E-Range stock so head over Airquee Online for details on our range of ready-for-dispatch products!

This week we are joined by Adam and his brother Tim from the factory, both involved in dispatch - they've come to see our new site for the first time. We’ll be continuing to process all your orders while working close together and making sure our service of getting your great products to you carries on smoothly!

The larger space is excellent for us to grow into, and we have some exciting plans. If you can imagine it, Airquee can make it. So watch this space! 

Moving day!

 

 

Moving day is finally upon us! Today and tomorrow we will be packing up the main office and the warehouse, loading the lorries and being ready to start the Cwmbran adventure on Monday!

We've got the new and improved Airquee team in training - Keiren and Sue joined us just as we're in the chaos of moving! They, along with Andrew in Repairs, will be forming the admin team on the front desk of Cwmbran, ready to battle any and all queries you have for them!

PLEASE NOTE - If you wish to collect your inflatable/s from us, as of today this must be done from our new Cwmbran office. The head office and warehouse are now located at Duel House, Llandowlais Street, Cwmbran, NP44 7XB. Please call before coming to collect so we can ensure that everything is ready for you.