It was with a certain amount of sadness that I heard the news that Avocet had been placed in the hands of the administrators.

A belated Happy New Year!  Sadly, the Christmas holidays seem a distant memory already, but to be honest it’s not our New Year which has been occupying my thoughts this week but the Chinese New Year coming up at the end of the month.

As Christmas approaches, it’s tempting to see the extended break as just a welcome holiday and a chance to recharge the batteries before the start of next year.

Mila was named Component Supplier of the Year at the G-11 Awards on Friday night.

In my last blog, I mentioned that I was heading east to visit the Fenestration China exhibition in Beijing and to see some of Mila’s key suppliers in the Far East.  Now that I’m back from the exhibition, I thought I’d post my thoughts on the trip.

I won’t be blogging for a couple of weeks because I am heading east to China to visit some of our key suppliers and do a bit of fact finding at the same time.

The long awaited TS007 security standard for replacement cylinders and associated security hardware has at last become a reality with the backing of the DHF, GGP, BSi and Secured by Design and the vast majority of suppliers, including Mila.

All of the Mila companies within the Arran Isle group operate independently but there is a huge amount of teamwork between the companies in Ireland, in Denmark and in Lithuania.

How great it was to see an engineer win The Apprentice this week.  It was a small victory for all the design and product engineers out there who spend their days poring over computers, models and prototypes and actually spend their days making something.  The product designers here at Mila certainly contribute a massive amount to this business.

Mila has always made much of its ability to produce bespoke products for any customer – but what is perhaps less well known is that our in-house design team can even produce short runs of products for special events or customer promotions.