Walking the Walk…For the Third Year Running

For the third year running, MVIS will be sponsoring the Ashgate Hospice High Peak Trail, with this years event taking place on Sunday 17th March. The walk takes place through our stunning Derbyshire countryside and will follow the former Cromford and High Peak Railway. The walk provides a scenic experience for walkers of all ages to enjoy.

Due to last years success at the introduction of 2 new routes, Ashgate Hospice have decided to once again follow the same format with 3 walking options of varying length and difficulty. One, a family friendly 3.5 miles. Something that you can bring children on so you can have a day spent with family (including well behaved dogs). Another route is the 11 mile walk, and the final walk being the full 17 miles. Participants meet at Cromford Meadows before being transported to the starting line.

We recently had the opportunity to take in the trail on which walkers will be undertaking over the weekend in March.

Sales & Business Development Executive Juliette Wright launches this years Trail with Natalie Bell  – Event Fundraiser from Ashgate Hospice. 

We are always proud to sponsor Ashgate Hospice events and are glad to always be there to assist them. As a company we appreciate their work and admire the amount of time, effort and inclusivity they present when holding events such as the Sparkle walk or the High Peak Trail. As a company it is about teamwork and raising money for the people they look after. We already have a couple of the team signed up for this years walk, including Anne Ashman our Commercial and Operations Director and Sales and Business Development Executive Juliette will also be taking part. 

David Storer – Ashgate Hospice Events Organiser: “MVIS are a pleasure to work with. They are always on hand to provide support across all of our fundraising events and go above and beyond to offer solutions that enhance our reach and help us to promote our brand across the region. The team have provided VMS’s for multiple events and appeals that have really helped to raise the awareness of Ashgate Hospice and the vital end of life care that we provide across North Derbyshire. A Huge thank you to MVIS from all of us at Ashgate Hospice!”

Brave the High Peak Trail and soak up the scenic Derbyshire countryside – Sign Up Here


The Great MVIS Bake Off Final 2023

We have had so much fun raising funds for Ashgate Hospice through various events and activities in 2023. Between September – November we held our in-house baking competition, The Great MVIS Bake Off, Inspired by the popular channel 4 show. This year the competition stepped up a level, with more fierce competition, more star bakers and a different theme each week. 

Throughout the weeks, we saw delicious bakes including cupcakes, brownies, cookies & fudge cakes. Throughout the competition, the best bakers rose to the top and progressed to the knock-out stages, until there were just 2. 

On Monday (6th Nov) we held our grand final between Purchasing Supervisor – Rebecca Prince  & Technical Apprentice – Jacob Spencer. Jacob (Chucky) was going in to his second final in two years after being crowned the Great MVIS Bake Off Winner in 2022. Both bakers were required to bake a Red Velvet cake and neither finalist disappointed.

As the Bake Off is held in order to raise funds for our charity partner Ashgate Hospice, we felt it was only right to get our own guest judges involved. David Storer & Natalie Bell took up the rolls of Paul Hollywood & Prue Leith. After a lot of tasting, deliberation and consulting, not only on flavour but on appearance and texture, David & Natalie crowned Jacob the 2023 Great MVIS Bake Off winner.


We also felt that with our guest judges in attendance, this was the perfect chance to announce our grand total raised for Ashgate Hospice throughout 2023.

We provide support & funds for Ashgate Hospice throughout the year and try to get involved with as many events as we can. These include:

MVIS, also provides the hospice with VMS to promote events throughout the year, including The High Peak Trail & Sparkle Walk.

When. we combined everything we have contributed to Ashgate throughout the year and our grand total is……..£14,982!  An incredible effort by all members or our amazing team. 

David Storer from Ashgate Hospice said:

“MVIS are a fantastic supporter of Ashgate Hospice and always go above and beyond to help us out wherever they can. Whether that’s supplying their digital signs to help with the promotion and safety of our events, helping at our events or even hosting a Bake Off challenge with all proceeds kindly being donated to the Hospice.

The money that MVIS save and raise for the Hospice each year is phenomenal, this year alone the total is just shy of £15k! Amazing!  This can do so much at the Hospice and goes towards ensuring that Ashgate Hospice will be here for the future when people need us the most. Thank you to Anne and all the team at MVIS. It’s such a warm and friendly place and we’re always made to feel welcome. We’re really looking forward to working with MVIS again in 2024.”

Tree-mendous Charity Work Continues

After spending the festive period lighting up your homes and housing Santa’s gifts to you, Christmas Trees are left next to the dust bin to decompose and hurt the environment. Thanks to the team at Ashgate Hospice, they have found an innovative way to raise money for the Hospice as well as using your Christmas Trees to help the environment surrounding them. The trees are collected by volunteers and given to local farmers so they can be chipped and recycled.

A handful of the local communities pay £15 for volunteers to collect their trees, then Ashgate plan routes accordingly and send truly generous people to ensure these trees get to the farm. The same farm that will chip the trees and convert them into biomass fuel.

Last week, MVIS team members Jon Larkins and Ben Ashman took the service van and collected trees in and around Matlock. Together, they collected 29 trees helping the team to raise the equivalent of over £400 in tree collections.

This is not the first time MVIS have volunteered their time to help this ingenious idea. MVIS have worked with Ashgate for over a year now and always like to find new ground-breaking ways to help the charity from taking part in the Sparkle Walk to Car-Boot Sales.

When all the trees are collected, they are converted into biomass fuel, a known way of making use of Christmas Trees after spending the festive period making your house look bright and vibrant for the big day. Using photosynthesis trees use carbon dioxide to help them grow and flourish, but when the trees die and begin to rot, they release carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere as well as trace amounts of methane, a gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Biomass as a source of energy means that gas is used as energy as opposed to being lost to nature.

Ashgate Hospice have since announced that this year’s scheme has been the most successful to date and has raised a staggering £12,203.75. This money will help ensure that they can continue to provide specialist care to patients and their families across North Derbyshire. Well done to everyone who took part!

 

 


Why We Choose to Support Ashgate Hospice

Known for our charitable work, MVIS is a company that cares about the community. We are lucky enough to be able to show our support within our community by sponsoring locally run clubs such as Matlock Town Football Club. For the past two years though, we have been pushing to support a local charity that has suffered more than most, Ashgate Hospice.

Ashgate Hospice is a charity that provides compassionate, specialist palliative and end-of-life care, free of charge, to patients with a life-limiting illness and their families across North Derbyshire. The Hospice vision is that everyone in North Derbyshire with a life-limiting illness, and the people important to them, can enjoy every moment together and die comfortably and with dignity.

Recently, Anne, Ben A and Ben K were all at Ashgate to discuss future support opportunities, and they found it to be a very humbling experience. The amount of money they need for just one week to support a patient is immense, so every little bit that we raise really does help. They were also told about Kimberley’s story, a young widow whose husband was admitted to Ashgate Hospice in the final months of his life following a three-year battle with bladder cancer. 

It’s an extremely sad story but it’s also one that is incredibly moving and highlights how important the care that Ashgate Hospice provides is. Thanks to the support from Ashgate, Kimberley’s husband, Andrew, was able to pass peacefully with his wife of 26 years sitting by his side. 

It’s for reasons like this that we are motivated to think of new ways to raise funds and support Ashgate Hospice. We are very proud of the fact that we have a fantastic team here at MVIS and Bartco UK who are always willing to get involved with charity work. We’re currently in the middle of our charity Bake Off competition, but this year we’ve stepped it up a bit with more weeks and more rounds. We sent out Kimberley and Andrew’s story for our staff to read, and it really hit home with them as to why it is so important that we continue to support Ashgate Hospice. We know that finding the motivation on a Sunday night to bake can be tough, but it’s clear how big a difference it can make. 

Andrew is just one of the thousands of patients each year that Ashgate Hospice cares for. In order for that to continue, it’s imperative that they receive support from the local community and local businesses like us. If you’d like to find out how you can support them too, please visit their website and help make a difference. 

Anne Ashman, UK Group Commercial and Operations Director comments, “We are proud of the part that we have played in supporting Ashgate Hospice over the last few years. Going to visit them and hearing about Kimberley’s story makes each fundraising activity that we have done even more rewarding and we are determined to increase our support next year. Ashgate is an integral part of the community, so it’s important that we continue to support them the best that we can.” 


MVIS visits Ashgate Hospice

Last week, we went to visit our friends at Ashgate Hospice to discuss how we can help support their upcoming High Peak Trail event. 

Ashgate Hospice is a local charity that provides specialist palliative and end-of-life care to patients with a life-limiting illness and their families across North Derbyshire. 

We have worked with Ashgate Hospice in countless fundraising activities over the years, but this was the first time that we could go inside and look around the hospice. Our UK Group Commercial and Operations Director, Anne Ashman, along with our Data Assistant, Ben Ashman, and Marketing Manager, Ben Kettell, made the journey up to Chesterfield to pay them a visit. 

Ashgate Hospice is not an NHS hospice and all the care that it provides is free of charge. In order to continue providing care when people need it most, Ashgate relies heavily on fundraising and community support from local businesses like us. 

We are currently doing our charity Bake Off competition again this year, with all the money raised going to Ashgate Hospice, and we have a lot more planned for the future to help support them. Earlier this year, we sponsored their High Peak Trail Walk event and provided our VMS to help with messaging for their Sparkle Night Walk

It was a pleasure to meet some of the amazing people who help make Ashgate Hospice what it is and we are very grateful for the fantastic work that they do for so many people in our community. We can’t wait to work with them next and hopefully it won’t be as long as last time before we can visit them again. 

Claire Unwin, Marketing and Communications Manager at Ashgate Hospice said, “It was a pleasure to meet you and show you around Ashgate Hospice, we can’t wait to work with you. Thank you for your invaluable support.” 

Anne Ashman, UK Group Commercial and Operations Director added, “We have worked with Ashgate for a few years now and so it was great to finally have a look around the hospice, which we haven’t been able to do yet primarily because of COVID-19 restrictions. We’re delighted to be able to support local causes such as Ashgate as they continue to make a significant contribution to the lives of local residents and their families.” 


Supporting Sparkle Night Walk 2022

On Saturday 9th July, thousands from North Derbyshire and the surrounding areas came together to walk 10km and raise vital funds for Ashgate Hospice in the Sparkle Night Walk 2022.

Ashgate Hospice is a local charity based in Chesterfield that we have worked with and supported extensively in recent years. They provide end-of-life care, free of charge to patients with a life-limiting illness and their families across North Derbyshire. They rely on the generosity of our community and businesses like us to raise millions of pounds each year to help fund their specialist and brilliant care. 

Last year, we supported the 2021 Sparkle Walk and we are proud to have done the same this year by deploying our signs in the lead-up to the event and on the night. Due to the scale of the annual Sparkle Walk, several main roads around the area are required to close so it is important to provide warnings in advance to help reduce risk. 

In the last financial year, we raised an amazing £13,733.38 for Ashgate Hospice by sponsoring their High Peak Trail Walk, as well as other fundraising initiatives like an office bake off and their Treecycle initiative, in which several of our staff volunteered to help collect Christmas trees. 

Whilst the amount raised for this year’s Sparkle Walk is yet to be determined, it is believed to be in the region of around £200,000. Every penny raised will go towards their care and helping nurses be there for families throughout Derbyshire who desperately need them. 

Rachel Broughton from Ashgate Hospice comments, “I’d like to thank MVIS for providing the road signs on the night and in the lead up to the event. You helped us not only put on an enjoyable and safe event but also saved us money which can now be redirected to help our nurses to provide their crucial care through all hours of the day and night to patients and their loved ones and for this, we are incredibly grateful.” 


Rest In Peace Jordan Sinnott

On 25th January 2020, MVIS Ltd received some very sad news from Matlock Town Football Club, where MVIS Ltd sponsor the home and away shirts. Midfielder, Jordan Sinnott, had died after a tragic incident on a night out in Retford. Tributes have been led by Matlock Town FC and his former club Alfreton FC.

Matlock Town FC commented on the tragedy, “We are very sorry to report that Jordan Sinnott has passed away just before 7pm this evening. His family and friends were with him at his bedside and we send our sincere condolences to them all at this very sad time. We understand from the Police that following a serious assault in Retford town centre yesterday evening Jordan was found unconscious with a suspected fractured skull. He was taken to hospital where he was treated for the injuries and put on a life support machine.”

Jordan was a talented player and a rising star, scoring a hat trick in Matlock Town’s recent game against Basford United. But more importantly, he was a son, a friend, a teammate and an idol, who leaves many loved ones behind to mourn his loss.

Games at the weekend and midweek were cancelled by Matlock Town FC as a mark of respect to Jordon, with a minute’s silence to be held at other local games.

Anne Ashman, General Manager commented, “Our hearts go out to his family, friends and supporters in what can only be described as a tragic and senseless loss of life and talent, we continue to support the club thorough these tragic times, where he is mourned by fans”.

 


MVIS scores another great partnership with Matlock Town

MVIS are proud to have secured another great deal with our local football team, Matlock Town, and we’re delighted to be sponsoring them for the next two years.

After a comfortable top half finish last season, The Gladiators have had mixed results this season, but with the recent win against Buxton FC they have secured their place in the division for the next season.

As part of the sponsorship deal, MVIS’ logo is proudly displayed on the front of the team shirts, and we supply the team with two VMS units – one fixed unit and one portable unit – which help them communicate to the public during the week about team news and upcoming fixtures, as well as messages of support throughout the home games.

The five colour LED screens offer a simple and eye-catching way to spread the news, and due to the large size, they are easily seen at the entrance and throughout the ground.

Tom Wright, Chairman of Matlock Town FC said: “It’s great to have MVIS on board as one of our sponsors. Not only do they support us with the promotion of our matches through their high profile VMS units, their sponsorship allows us to help nurture the growing talent we have within the club.”

Anne Ashman, General Manager at MVIS commented, “MVIS is committed to supporting the local community in many ways, from offering work experience and apprenticeships to local students, to sponsoring local teams and sportsmen as we do with Matlock Town. We are thrilled to be named as one of their sponsors for the next two seasons as their hard-work and determination is a great fit with MVIS’ work ethic.”

Matlock Town’s next match takes place against Whitby Town on April 14, 2018. Visit our website for more information by clicking here. We hope to see plenty of you there.


Two success stories in one week for MVIS

MVIS and its sister company Bartco UK, saw two successes stories in one week as two of their sponsored sports stars and teams brought home the silverware. 

Boxing Clever

On Wednesday 17th May, The Original Jesters’ man from Matlock, Karl ‘Tinker’ Johnston, stepped into the ring to face Cyprus’ Kimbo Super Fight Champion, Christakis Alexandrou, to decide who was going to take the ICO Super Middleweight World Champion title.

Karl’s successful defence of his European crown in April 2017 secured his shot at the title, and with the fight being held on UK soil, Karl’s army of fans made the trip to Birmingham to show their support.

Despite round one showing that Johnston was in for a tough fight, Karl’s conditioning and strength shone through as he landed more and more damaging shots at Alexandrou as the fight went on.

In the fourth round, Alexandrou only had the bell to thank for his survival, however, in round five Johnston pushed the tough Cypriot on to final bell before having his arm raised and being crowned the new ICO Super Middleweight champion.

As a result of his success, Karl will now fight under new boxing rules before the end of 2017, and then he will make his first defence of his title in 2018.

On behalf of all the team at MVIS, we would like to congratulate Karl on his continuous success and we wish him all the best of luck in his future fights.

A Match Made in Heaven

Matlock Town FC scored a winning result in their recent cup final, beating Gresley FC 5 – 0 in a distinctly one-sided match to see The Gladiators become DCFA Senior Challenge Cup Champions.

Marc Newsham opened the score sheet by driving home a 25-yard shot into the top left-hand corner, with the second headed home by Michael Williams just before half-time.

Newsham netted his second – and The Gladiator’s third – soon into the second half, with Jake Green scoring the fourth from a free kick in the 54th minute.

Niall McManus closed the scoring with a thunderous strike to the top right-hand corner in the 72nd minute, taking Matlock to a convincing 5 – 0 victory.

The MVIS team would like to offer big congratulations to The Gladiators for a thrilling season, and we look forward to sponsoring and watching your continued success in the next.


CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility

Responsible Business Conduct for a Better World

As a successful business, employer and member of the wider community, we believe it is our Corporate Social Responsibility to help the people and businesses in our local community. We provide a mixture of practical and financial support across a range of areas.

Safety

The safety of our customers, employees and the general public is one of our top priorities. The very nature of our products help to bring safety to the UK’s road network, for events and emergency situations.

At the heart of our business operations, safety is a core foundation that our organisation is built upon. Principals of safety are felt at every level of our business, from our staff to our products and service. Perhaps one of the most socially responsible priorities, our emphasis on safety serves as the base point we that we judge all aspects of our business on.

Safety training plays a huge part in this, with the danger presented in many aspects of our line of work potentially being life threatening in on-site environments and in manufacturing roles.

Some of the training we either mandate or offer to our staff are:

  • Manual handling
  • Role related safety training
  • Fire Warden training
  • First Aid training
  • Near Miss training

VMS for Corporate Social Responsibility

Employees & Training

We encourage our staff to undertake as much training as possible, increasing the safety and job satisfaction of our team members. As a result, we boast of one of the industry’s best trained workforces and continue to support employees in training and qualifications with no limit to their advancement.

We also prioritise mental health, wellbeing and physical health in our approach to staff.

A few things we do to ensure this are: 

  • All employees receive literature detailing the mental health first aid protocol ‘ALGEE’
  • We offer the services of 2 mental health first aiders to lean on when their mental health is suffering
  • Offering the use of services such as Peninsula’s EAP 
  • We encourage staff to enjoy their downtime when possible, discouraging employees to take their work home with them and support staff in personal endeavours where applicable
  • Offering a wide range of free fruit each week for our employees, as well as free healthy lunch options for all employees if they want them
  • Employees are encouraged to take part in corporate fitness and sporting challenges throughout the year
  • Assisting an employee back to work after an extended illness we work with them on measures such as the reduction of hours or responsibilities if they feel they need them
  • We promote an open, inclusive and friendly company culture that rewards hard work and dedication
  • Offering a generous employee benefits package
  • We promote a culture of competitive pay in our organisation not only to reward our staff for their hard work, but also to keep them and help prevent poaching

Community Outreach & Charity

We take pride in our community outreach efforts, which have seen us offer our products, time and financial support to a range of community causes as and when they occur.

Some of our community activities include: 

  • We regularly reach out to businesses affected by local emergencies such as flooding with the offer of our products to support with reopening, community information or security
  • We run an apprenticeship scheme to support the careers of local youngsters
  • Regularly provide work experience for students from Matlock’s Highfields school
  • We also take part in local volunteering activities that benefits the community as a whole. For example, we work closely with our local community school in the form of annual mock interviews and critical thinking challenges for the students
  • Taking place throughout the year, our charity initiatives reach their peak during Christmas time. Each year, as an organisation, we pick a homeless charity to raise money for from our Christmas jumper day, which staff bring funds to take part in. Throughout December, we also hold a food bank collection which is donated before Christmas to a local food bank.
  • We remain opportunistic in this with charity taking the form of attendance at charity events, responses to local emergencies (both in financial support and services) and even advice.
  • Supporting the Ashgate Hospice, we raise money for the charity by running our in house baking competition, The Great MVIS Bake Off, partaking in the Treecycle, the Sparkle Walk and sponsoring the High Peak Trail. Before Christmas staff members volunteered to host a movie night for the team at Ashgate.
  • Having initiative to clean our offices, we are proud of our offices, this is why we take part in a litter pick in our surrounding area to ensure that the offices and roads around us are clean and maintained.
  • We support local sports individuals, in recent years we have sponsored many athletes over the years including Karl Johnston, a world champion Kickboxer, and the Matlock Town Football Team supplying them with a VMS outside the pitch.

Working with Ashgate, a part of our Corporate Social Responsibility, supporting the charity since 2018.

Environmental responsibility

The very nature of the majority of our products have a strong environmental focus. Our specialism being in solar power provides us a position of privilege to offer environmentally friendly products to organisations looking to minimise their carbon footprint and environmental impact. 

Understanding the carbon footprint of our service, we strive to ensure that we minimise our emissions output wherever possible. Some of the steps we have taken are as follows: 

  • Our delivery model sets out to deliver multiple units at a time where necessary. Working to reduce our carbon footprint, we can offload up to 3 x VMS A units in one delivery, up to 2 x VMS C units, or up to 2 x Solar IP units.
  • We have taken steps to help reduce our energy consumption over recent years and continue to commit to this through new innovations. Technological upgrades such as movement sensors and timers in our lights, hand dryers and eco-friendly heating solutions have been installed in our head office

We have a number of initiatives in place that helps the wildlife in our local area. Amongst these include a bee hotel and a hedgehog home that is maintained by our staff. 

The importance of bees to the environment and global eco systems are well documented, and our choice for hedgehogs is close to our industry, with an estimated 1/4 of the population of hedgehogs being killed on UK roads each year.

We also maintain an on-site flower bed with plants monitored by our team in an effort to give back to the environment and bring some natural beauty to our local area.  


Sponsoring spells success for MVIS

As a company, MVIS has always supported local businesses and causes close to our hearts, and we’re always keen to help out where we can.

We recently donated the use of four variable message signs plus a van and driver to a local initiative to publicise the local hospital, the Whitworth Hospital which was due to have a vital ward closed. The signs were used to advertise the event and advise road users of the protest march, and the vehicle was used to transport a hospital bed to around the local area to advertise our plight.

We are also keen to show our support for a number of local sports teams and athletes, and as such, are the current sponsors of Matlock Town FC. Fans of the Gladiators will have noticed our logo on the front of their shirts, and we’re also happy to have donated a VMSC unit which is situated in the ground, as well as a fixed VMSA unit on the outside of the ground, used to send messages of support to the team, as well as display useful match day information to fans from all sides.

Alongside sponsoring Matlock Town FC, MVIS are proud to sponsor boxing athlete Karl ‘Tinker’ Johnston of Matlock’s Original Jesters club. Karl, a dedicated fighter, who fought his way to become the new professional European K1 Champion back in 2016, is sponsored and represented by MVIS on all of his training kit. Karl will be defending his title on the 1st April 2017, MVIS and our sister company Bartco UK have sponsored him for this event.

Back in 2015, we were also named the sponsor of the World Championship race team, Mickel Motorsport. Each year, MVIS supplies high visibility solar powered variable message signs (VMS) to the UK race paddocks where the Mickel Motorsport team will complete, as well as having MVIS branding on their vehicles. The team at MVIS are delighted to sponsor the 2015 UK Legends National Champions, and thoroughly enjoy attending races to offer continued support to the Mickel team.

Crown Green Bowling player, Craig Shore is also another sporting star we are proud to offer continued support too. The team here at MVIS wish Craig all the best in the upcoming bowling season.


MVIS scores great results for Matlock Town

The majority of MVIS’ staff are local to the area, and as a business we have a great team spirit which is evident to all customers and visitors.

As a company nestled in the heart of the Peak District, we support the local area whenever we can, and this year has been no different.

Last season, MVIS sponsored local club Matlock Town FC’s new football academy, offering 16-18 year olds wishing to pursue a career in sports, the opportunity to study, train and play football full-time for two years, achieving a BTEC Level 3 in sport.

MVIS has since signed a two year deal to continue its sponsorship of the academy – which is currently expanding to accommodate its second student intake – and also to sponsor Matlock Town first team’s shirts.

As well as sponsoring the team shirts and the new academy, MVIS has also provided the club with a number of variable message signs (VMS) which they can use to help promote their upcoming matches and other important information to their audiences within the ground, and passers-by on the street.

Matlock Town Cover PhotoThe VMS-C – the larger of the VMS units – is now situated within the DCJ Group Insurance Arena and is a great way to display the last goal scorer, man of the match and any other important information that the crown may need to know. Because our VMS are able to be updated remotely from a PC or any Wi-Fi enabled Apple device, the information on the non-glare screen can be changed in an instant to keep everyone up-to-date.

The five colour display supports pictograms too, which gives The Gladiators the chance to create eye-catching messages and offers a great opportunity for other sponsors to promote their brands throughout the match.

MVIS has also installed a VMS-A outside the club on Causeway Lane, which announces upcoming games and ticket information. This is visible from the street so catches a huge audience on a daily basis, and because it can be pre-programmed with up to five different messages, it’s quick and easy to maintain.

If you think your business would benefit from hiring a VMS, please get in touch on 01629 580570.