On March 27th and 28th the Integra Group ran their successful "Driving Success" General Meeting at the Cotswold Water Park Four Pillars Hotel near Cirencester.

The Met Office has predicted that temperatures are likely to be warmer than normal, setting the scene for a hot summer with temperatures well above the UK average. Before the temperatures soar, now is the time to prepare in advance for the heat wave by investing in portable coolers to keep shops and offices cool this summer. An ideal solution is a portable cooler such as Convair Bioclimatic Portable Evaporative Air Coolers, Australia's leading air cooling product.

After researching the UK Stationery Distribution Market Development and taking into account various other factors the following major conclusions can be drawn from MBD's report.

John Dickinson Stationery has undergone many positive changes since becoming part of the leading European stationery company, Hamelin, in 2005. These include merging the original Hamelin Stationery business with John Dickinson Stationery in the UK and re-positioning the brand portfolio to meet the current and future needs of the market with some hugely successful new product launches.

Premier Farnell has announced the appointment of Andy King (pictured) as President of Farnell Europe and Global Head of the Electronic Design Engineering (EDE) segment.

Howard Smith Paper Office & Retail, part of the Howard Smith Paper Group, has announced the winners of an incentive campaign, launched in January, to promote its IBM Paper, together with a new extensive product microsite.

Fit-out to facilities management firm Modus Group has been named as one of the UK's fastest growing companies in the ninth annual Profit Track 100 league table published by The Sunday Times and sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Profit Track 100 ranks Britain's fastest growing private companies by average profit growth over the last three years.

The Role of the RSMG

The Rubber Stamp Manufacturers Guild (RSMG) is the trade association for the rubber stamp and associated marking devices industry. The guild's main role is to promote the industry it serves and offer its members a forum for the exchange of ideas, information and education.

The UK stationery and office supplies industry saw the return of a dedicated national trade show last month with the launch of the Stationery & Office Products Show (SOPX) in London - and buyers loved it. They came from across the country from Aberdeen, Norwich, Crewe, Manchester, Sheffield, Swindon, Birmingham and Belfast as well as London and the South East. They represented dealers, dealer groups, wholesalers, retail and commercial stationers, department and variety stores, superstores, mail order and online - both multiples and independents.

CPU Holders 4U enjoyed a successful introduction to the stationery and office product industry at the SOPX show in April. CPU Holders 4U manufacture a range of PC and Laptop peripherals used for improving the ergonomics of computer equipment in the workplace. SOPX was an introductory show for CPU Holders 4U, to an industry they had not previously explored.

The business of alternatives to expensive OEM branded supplies has been around for many years but MSE appears to offer something different. Mark Dawson who heads sales for MSE in Europe talks about Red Oceans and Blue Oceans when explaining MSE's approach:

Bostik, the UK's second largest adhesives and sealants manufacturer, has this month launched Sticki Pen, an innovative new adhesive that works just like a felt-tip pen.

Brother has launched new desktop label printers to help dealers maximise sales from the office market.

New from 3M is a great new promotion exclusively for this spring.  "Step out in Style" with Post-it Products and Scotch Brand provides customers with the chance to redeem a free £10 shoe voucher, and win a VIP trip to New York City.

The German company HERMA offers a high quality labelling portfolio whose versatility in terms of formats, colours, packaging sizes and applications is unmatched. The multi-purpose labels, SuperPrint, for example, are available for almost every application like addressing, identification and organising in the office or at home. They guarantee excellent printing results on any printer, copier or multifunction machine.

Avery is once again leading the way as the first labels brand to introduce Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification into their Addressing Labels range, allowing consumers to use labels in an environmentally-friendly way.

Whether you're looking for a short or long-term bond, Glue Dots^TM Adhesive Products provide an instant, clean, reliable hold to almost any surface.

Fancy owning a sports car? There are two BMW Z4Ms to be won on special packs of Loctite super glue.

Issues such as "climate change" and "sustainable protection of the environment" are much more than just ideas which people, industry and retailers have been working on for some time.

BIC® is set for a record Back to School season with its exciting combination of innovative new products and an interactive web campaign.

Sharp Electronics (UK) Ltd has launched two new hand-held calculator models - the EL-233S and the EL-M332 - aimed at primary school children of all ages.

Epson, renowned for developing high quality printers tailored to the demands of the modern office, has announced that it will be adding a new high-specification printer to its popular AcuLaser business printer range. The AcuLaser M4000 series is capable of delivering up to 43 pages per minute, even at full 1200 dpi resolution, with a first page out time of eight seconds.

Spitfire, the leading voice and data solution provider, has extended its ISDN30e Call Diversion Service, allowing clients to keep their existing numbers when moving. This service does not rely on Voice over IP (VoIP) or SIP and Spitfire believes it is a unique way to keep phone numbers when moving outside an exchange area. The service uses forwarding technology to deliver calls to any UK number for a fixed cost of 1p per minute, and a rental cost of £5 per month for a single DDI range. Individual DDI numbers will be forwarded to a corresponding DDI number at the new site.

Do you find yourself swamped with business cards or drowning in documents? Or are you tied down by endless retyping? The office gadgets from document management specialists I.R.I.S. make light work of any scanning task and can be taken anywhere due to their lightweight and compact design.

Dairy Crest (www.dairycrest.co.uk) is the UK's leading chilled dairy foods company, with over 8,500 employees across 21 sites throughout the UK and Ireland, including the company's joint venture, Yoplait Dairy Crest.

Fellowes, the leading supplier of workspace solutions and long-standing corporate partner of WWF, has today presented the environmental organisation/charity with a cheque for £52,000, bringing its total donations to date to £500,000. The money, raised through sales of Fellowes' R-Kive Panda range, have contributed directly to WWF's conservation work around the world and this is a proud milestone in the two organisations' 14 year relationship.

The great British obsession with "haggling" is a thing of the past when it comes to buying IT, says Birmingham-based technology services provider, Probrand.