Recently we have taken on several new members of staff which has brought new levels of excitement and enthusiasm to MVIS. Towards the end of last year, we welcomed our new Office Manager Sean Gardner to the team who brings with him over 10 years of experience in staff management. 

As we entered the new year, we welcomed two more new starters, Alex and Mia, and have a third starting with us this week, Clair.

By recruiting Alex, Mia and Clair, we strengthened both our in-house Marketing Department and Customer Relations team. In less than one month of taking on new team members, we have already reaped the benefits of their diverse skillset and could not be more excited about seeing them progress with us.

Our continual growth as a company means that we can expand our team to bring new talent, experience and perspectives into the group along with promoting staff from within to new roles. These perspectives allow us to ensure we are maintaining our high standards but also to learn new things from their skills and experience.

The office is experiencing an exciting atmosphere as a result of our new talent, and we are even more excited about what comes next for the rest of the year. 

Sean Gardner, Office Manager comments, “Since joining MVIS I have been welcomed and supported by the rest of the team. I look forward to doing the same by guiding our new members of staff, helping train them to keep our service levels at platinum level and keeping our customers happy”.

Anne Ashman, UK Group Commercial and Operations Director added, “It is always sad to say goodbye to long serving members of the team, but sometimes you realise when fresh talent comes into the company it was actually needed. The addition of new employees has brought diverse ideas, new skills, and a fresh perspective that helps us better serve our customers. We could not be more pleased with our new staff and what they have achieved so far. Already the additional marketing skills we now have in house have made a huge difference to the whole department, giving it fresh eyes and ideas, our social media has already had a much-needed refresh. It has been an exciting time for everyone as we’ve welcomed new members to the team and given me the opportunity to push the business forward even more with the talent we now have”.

As a group, MVIS and Bartco UK take pride in our ability to recognise talent and place skills in the right places. In the past we have relocated employees with talents in a specific skill to other departments in order to allow them to develop and grow more with the company than their previous role allowed.

But this approach brings with it more advantages than just personal development. As demonstrated by our cross-departmental training initiative, we find it to be of great benefit when our team are trained across departments. This allows each member of staff to gain a deeper appreciation of what team members in other departments are required to do. When staff understand this, everyone can work together more effectively.

One of our more recent shifts has been with Mizzy Watson. Having worked in Customer Relations for over 2 years, Mizzy has an excellent understanding of the products, how they work and importantly, what customers want. At the beginning of February, Mizzy transitioned from the MVIS Customer Relations team to Bartco UK’s Research and Development department, working alongside R&D Manager, Tom Hooton, as Research & Development Assistant.

Working with Mizzy will offer Tom not only another pair of hands to assist him with product development, but it also offers him a unique perspective in R&D and connects the department with direct customer experience.

Tom Hooton comments, “I’m really looking forward to working with Mizzy. Her previous role required her to have a keen attention to detail, which is so vital in this department. Combine this with her knowledge of the products and our customers and she’s perfect to work in R&D.”

Anne Ashman, UK Group Commercial and Operations Director added, “When a role arises within our group, it’s always great to promote from within, it pays to look internally to see if we already have the skills and experience in-house before we bring someone else in. We are all very excited to see what Mizzy and the R&D department can do.”

Every year, hundreds of Christmas trees are cast out of homes and taken to the tip or just left in gardens for days or weeks whilst the normal routine of life kicks in.

Ashgate Hospice offer the local community a ‘Treecycle’ service, allowing people to pay £15 to have their trees removed in a hassle-free way that is also good for the environment. Each tree is chipped and recycled, offering a sustainable way to dispose of your Christmas tree as well as raising important funds so that the hospice can continue to provide end of life care throughout 2022.

In order to do this, Ashgate Hospice have a serious job on their hands. Relying on volunteers with the means to do so, Ashgate Hospice plan routes accordingly for people to follow, picking up the trees one by one, then taking them to a local farm to be converted into biomass fuel.

MVIS’s own Anne Ashman, Sean Brown and Ben Ashman were amongst those volunteers during the 2^nd weekend in January 2022, collecting 29 trees for Ashgate Hospice in the Chesterfield and Matlock community, helping them to raise the equivalent of £435 in tree collections!

Not only this, but Ashgate also used one of our VMS-A units to help spread awareness about the campaign, located in the car park of a popular local supermarket, offering maximum exposure to the message and helping even further to raise the much needed funds that allow Ashgate to continue offering their compassionate service.

This follows in a long line of fundraising activities that MVIS have conducted for Ashgate Hospice, last year contributing over £11,000 in a combination of financial donations from fundraisers and gifts in kind, in the form of our portable variable message signs to help with raising awareness.

The conversion of the trees into biomass fuel is a known way of making them productive even after they have served their intended purpose. The trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, using photosynthesis to essentially help them grow. When a tree in the wild dies, it rots and a lot of the carbon is released back into the air as carbon dioxide, as well as potentially producing methane too, which is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. By using biomass as a source of energy, we are using that energy in a productive way rather than it being lost to nature.

Compare this to burning fossil fuels, which releases carbon into the atmosphere, often from ancient geological reservoirs. Burning biomass fuels is intercepting a cycle that is already taking place rather than disrupting carbon reserves that would have stayed inside the Earth untouched for a very long time to come. What’s more is that modern biomass systems are highly efficient. Considering the most popular alternative fuels for heating are fossil fuels and these energy costs are significantly increasing at the moment, recycling Christmas trees into biomass offers a fantastic way to solve more than one problem.

Anne Ashman, UK Group Commercial and Operations Director commented, “It’s great to be working with Ashgate Hospice on a scheme that not only helps them, but also helps the community and the environment. It’s rare you come across an opportunity to do all 3 in one initiative and helping these trees to be recycled gives us piece of mind that they are being useful even after they are no longer wanted by those who purchased them.”

Anne continues, “Taking part in the Treecycle this year was hard work but very rewarding and a lot of fun. As we continue into 2022, we are all excited to see what other fundraising ideas we can give the MVIS touch.”

As we all get settled back into the routine of daily life, we are pleased to welcome 2 new starters to MVIS at the beginning of 2022. Alex Handley and Mia Maycock started on our first day back to work after the Festive season and the pair have been welcomed into the company hitting the ground running, with training commencing immediately on our range of portable solar powered ITS solutions, on health and safety, and of course on their specific roles.

Alex, our new Marketing Assistant brings with him a Master’s degree in Digital Media Management, a qualification that equips him with solid skills and experience to help our Marketing Manager, Sean Brown, further grow and develop our marketing infrastructure and presence. As a very hands-on role, Alex will be working on our social media, helping with design and undergoing training from Sean in the background on areas such as SEO and email marketing to help develop his skills further.

Working alongside Office Manager Sean Gardner in Customer Relations, Mia will be helping to keep our customer service and delivery teams to the highest standard that we have come to expect. Being on the front line with customers, Mia’s friendly and professional demeanour as well as her quick thinking and problem-solving skills play large parts in her capability for the role. With direction and further training from Sean, Mia will certainly embody what it means to be a member of the team here at MVIS.

Anne Ashman, UK Group Commercial and Operations Director comments, “Having new team members is always an exciting time for us. Not only does it bring in new skills and perspectives, but it also brings in new personalities to the group, giving us the opportunity to get to exchange experiences and learn from each other.”

Anne continues, “We are all looking forward to seeing what Alex and Mia can bring to the teams they have joined and the wider group team too. We have fantastic opportunities for all members of staff to grow with us, so we are eager for both Alex and Mia to make the most out of these.”

Week 1

Taking advantage of every excuse to help our local community, here at MVIS and Bartco UK we have organised a true Bartvis style “Bake Off” where we are holding competitions weekly and voting to ultimately find the true master chef here at our Matlock HQ. Yearly Ashgate promotes their “Care for a cuppa” campaign, asking for support by hosting a cake sale. With this as our inspiration, we have asked the team for volunteers in competing to be our 2021 Master Baker and all proceeds dedicated to Ashgate.

Week 1 has commenced on 6^th September 2021 and we have had a strong start to the competition with Juliette, Pip, and Cain bringing in their homemade masterpieces for the rest of the team to judge. Coming together on a Monday morning was a boost in morale as this is something that we haven’t been able to do over the past year so this competition is our chance at getting the team together in a friendly competition. This week’s winner going onto the next stage is…. Juliette with her homemade pastry!

Next week we have 3 more members of the team battling for a place in the finale!

  

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Week 2 

 On this week’s “Bake off” we have had submissions from Anne, Tim and Tom. Another strong week and after being judged by the rest of the team, the winner was revealed as Tim with his homemade bourbon brownies! 

A lot of time and effort has gone into our team’s entries, with cinnamon swirls made by Tom and his little helpers over the weekend (who ate the first two batches for quality checks!) and a 5 layered rainbow cake made by Anne! Seeing the creations that the teams are entering each week and the effort that goes into making them is amazing, and choosing a winner each week is always a tough decision as they are all worthy winners! 

 

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Week 3 

On the week commencing the 20th of September, we have had our second to last batch of bakers bring in their pieces for us to test. Each week it is getting harder and harder to nominate a winner, especially with this week’s Ben Ashman bringing in his homemade Vegan brownies, Sean Brown`s one-of-a-kind flapjacks and Rebecca Prince`s perfectly baked carrot cake, the votes were taken and the winner was announced as….  Sean Brown! 

This is our Second to last week of the bake-off before the final and we cant wait to see how much we have been able to raise for Ashgate.

 

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Week 4

Todays Bake off, we had Tillie, Dom and Jacob bringing in their submissions. It’s been amazing seeing the different departments getting involved in baking and taking part in raising money for Ashgate, This was the last week of the Bake-off before the finale and all 3 submissions were worthy winners but it was our youngest resident, Jacob who is through to the final round! 

We also had the chance to vote for a winner over all from the last 3 weeks to join Jacob, Sean, Juliette and Tim in the finale and after putting it to a vote, the winner was…. Pip with her chocolate cake from round 1! 

Well done to everyone who has participated over the last weeks! We are looking forward to seeing who the winner in the final winner’s

round of our MVIS style Bake off! 

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Finale 

This week we have had our final round of the “Great MVIS Bake off”,  the previous winners were put to the test of doing a 12 piece traybake to determine the winner and we haven’t been disappointed! With all 5 entries we were lost for words with both the presentation and professionalism in their work that we were forced to cast a vote twice and still weren’t able to pick one to be the overall winner! 

Each of the team brought in a completely unique piece which really radiates the team spirit here at MVIS, and the generosity of our staff for getting involved in this 5 week bake off all in the name of charity! 

So we want to say a massive thank you to each member of the team who has gotten involved and a round of applause to all who have gotten to the final. This leads us to announce our winners of the 2021 “Great MVIS Bake off”….. Pip Wood and Tim Hill!

In order to progress and continue to provide MVIS customers with the highest quality products and services within the industry, the company always looks for ways it can develop.

Since MVIS’s establishment in 2012, an external marketing company was used to provide MVIS with marketing strategies and build the companies online reputation. At the time it was perfect for the size of the company,  however in recent years the product catalogue has expanded and the hire fleet was grown, meaning a more hands-on approach was needed to reach current and potential customer’s online and branch into a more modern approach of being an independent company.

In 2019 MVIS’s then general Manager, Anne Ashman, decided to move away from using an external marketing agency and bring a new department into the rapidly growing company. Feeling the need to have someone internal portraying the company out to the market that knew MVIS inside out, she felt this could only ever be achieved by working within the organisation.

This led to the formation of the Marketing Department and employing Sean Brown as the Marketing Manager. With 8 years of experience in marketing, Sean was the perfect candidate to update and rebrand the external presence of MVIS, in his two years the company has seen a complete update of the marketing strategy, working closely with Anne and working in areas that an agency couldn’t have done, especially through the pandemic where a keen eye for adaptability whilst retaining sustainability was needed.

Taking on this role was going to be a large task for anybody. Sean’s vast knowledge in website design and SEO, let him easily take control of services that had previously been outsourced which meant that there was full engagement with current, new and potential clients in the fast-moving industry’s the company works in.

Sean`s tasks do not just include the upkeep of the marketing strategies but also include the training of his team, Tillie and  Ben. These last few years, Sean has passed on his knowledge and provided training sessions to them both.

Tillie said “Sean is amazing to work with; he likes to ensure that everything is done to the highest standard, implementing this in the marketing department has made Ben and I conscious of the work we do and the importance of a strong marketing department.”

Anne Ashman Commercial & Operations Director said “We want to say a big thank you for the effort that Sean has put into building the companies branding and reputation over the last two years, especially during the Covid pandemic, with daily changes coming from the government in 2020.  Every member of our team here at MVIS are what makes us stand out from the rest as we understand the importance of a strong, reliable task force when it comes to providing the UK with the highest quality products and solutions in the Intelligent Transport Business”.

Celebrating staff retention and staff achievements is something that here at MVIS we are incredibly proud to be able to do. All of our team hold an integral part in maintaining our high standards and services, and being the leading VMS provider UK wide, we believe that it is our team that make us stand out from the rest within the industry.

In 2019 we decided to take on a new member of the Operations department to help our then Assistant Operations Manager, Dom Bridge, with his increased workload as our fleet grew to over 500 units and new builds were being developed in our Matlock HQ  in order to ensure that we were able to keep our market leading title, across the whole of the UK.

Mizzy came to us in August 2019 for an interview and it was decided that she was going to be a perfect addition to the team. With experience in customer relations and fast learning attributes, she was able to build and develop relationships with new and existing customers. Her confidence and charismatic personality has seen Mizzy being complimented and praised by customers and her team alike and which has made her a valued member our incredible work force.

We would like to say a big thankyou to Mizzy for the hard work that she has put into developing herself into her role over the last two years. We couldn’t hope for a better team here at MVIS, the commitment and dedication to each department is never over looked.

Back in February this year, we celebrated the 21^st birthday of one of our team members, Tillie Woolliscroft. This month marks 5 years since Tillie has been with MVIS and we thought there was no better opportunity to review her progress since turning 21!

In February, we shone a spotlight on Tillie’s professional progress her time with us. Since then, she has gone on to achieve even more, not just for the company, but also for her own development.

Tillie began working at MVIS as an apprentice back in 2016 aged only 16, working under the supervision of Dom Bridge as a Customer Service and Operations apprentice.

During this time, Tillie also took on the role of bringing our more creative campaigns to life, particularly those around Christmas time. It was her affinity for these creative tasks that gave then General Manager, now Commercial and Operations Director at MVIS, Anne Ashman the idea to transition Tillie into a role that made more use of these skills. Whilst Tillie’s customer service skills were impeccable, it was understood that her professional development would be better channeled in a role that brought her artistic flair to the surface in a more ‘hands-on’ way.

As a result, it was decided in late 2019 that Tillie would transition into the newly formed Marketing department as Marketing Assistant, working under the guidance and training of Marketing Manager, Sean Brown.

Tillie’s professional development has taken a high priority internally in order to better utilise the obvious creative talent she has. This has involved approaching her development in several different ways, including CDP academic training, personal study and on the job experience.

Since February, Tillie has taken her development to the next level, by enrolling onto a Digital Marketing Level 3 Apprenticeship course as well as progressing along the Adobe training program she started earlier in the year.

Through her consistent commitment to her work, Tillie has developed an entirely new skills set that makes the most out of her talents in a way that her previous role only facilitated in a limited capacity.

Working in a marketing role has allowed Tillie to expand her knowledge and experience of marketing disciplines such as web design, SEO, social media and even copy writing, making her a versatile member of staff and a skilled marketer.

Sean comments, “It is so rewarding seeing Tillie develop. Even since February I have seen a huge improvement on her already fantastic grounding in her skills. The more time goes on, the more proficient Tillie becomes. I’m excited to seeing what the future holds as she develops her skills further.”

Anne Ashman adds, “In the 5 years Tillie has worked with us, I have seen her grow from a timid youngster into a strong and independent woman who has achieved so much. We are all so proud to have Tillie as part of the MVIS family.”

Everyone at MVIS congratulates Tillie on this amazing milestone as we look forward to the next one!

In the 9 years MVIS have been serving the UK’s messaging needs, we have grown as a company, expanding our team to better accommodate demand for our products and services. The MVIS management team are no exception and has seen new team members join the ranks in recent years.

Long standing management team members also continue to train and upskill, understanding that as the business and economy changes, so too should employees so everyone can continue to uphold standards of safety and quality in every area of the business.

In this post, we take a look at the MVIS management team and what they bring to the company at a time when it is at its biggest.

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Anne Ashman – UK Group Commercial and Operations Director

Anne Ashman has been with the company since it started as Colour Mobile VMS back in 2011. Originally starting with us as Office Manager, Anne has climbed in the ranks over the years to her current position of UK Group Commercial and Operations Director, overseeing both UK companies and the teams within them as well as serving as a member of the executive management team, representing the UK companies and their staff to the owners of the group companies.

As the central nexus for the MVIS and Bartco UK machines, Anne’s quick thinking and problem-solving skills are a valuable asset for the companies as a whole and her leadership skills have always been an asset when it comes to leading her team and especially stepping up as a leader during the pandemic.

Throughout Anne’s time with MVIS and Bartco UK, she has been responsible for writing and implementing the strategies, policies and procedures, along with recruiting all the staff in the teams that have led the companies to such success over the years. Anne’s dedication to ‘best practise’ also oversees the quality the team delivers to our customers, with her ‘pet hate’ being bad service, Anne often pulls the team up if she feels we are not giving the best service we can as a company.

Anne also places a huge priority on the physical and mental safety of her teams, resulting in a very focused approach to training and qualifications. If our teams are not trained properly, it can cost lives – and not just their lives.

If the incorrect information, for example, is displayed on one of our traffic signs, or if the information is presented in a way that is not compliant with legal frameworks, it could result in a highly dangerous outcome for our team and the wider public.

Anne takes these potential consequences very seriously and understands that this responsibility can’t be matched with a ‘catch all’ or lazy approach to training.

By supporting the development of staff in the way that we do, Anne also offers them a level of job satisfaction that keeps employees with the companies long term and creates consistency for the benefit of customers, stakeholders and the staff themselves.

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Graeme Lee – Sales Director

Graeme Lee started back in 2012 after the Olympics project when the company had a minimal customer database.

Since then, Graeme has worked hard to ensure the company’s growth. Being a major player in getting MVIS and Bartco UK to where it is now, he has recently been promoted to Sales Director in recognition of his work. As Sales Director, Graeme is required to manage the new sales team, ensuring that they are working to their best and the company is utilising each person’s skillset.

During his time with the company, Graeme has attended trade shows and built strong relationships through customer visits and contact. He has single-handedly built a large customer database and made traction with all the major tier 1 contracts, which clearly shows in our Major Projects Timeline.

Graeme is not only well liked and trusted within the company, but also within the industry. He brings with him a wealth of knowledge of over 15+ years of working within the rental and sales highways and TM industry.

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Dom Bridge – Operations Manager

Dom Bridge started with MVIS in 2013 as an admin apprentice and over the years has completed several courses, including his CMI Level 5 Diploma in Management and Leadership.

Having been involved in as much delivery planning for events, major projects, high speed works and TM has equipped Dom with a solid knowledge of how the organisation works and how things are supposed to be done.

Dom’s reliability, attention to detail, organisation skills and unshakeable attitude really does make him exceptional in the role of Operations Manager.

Nothing is too much trouble for him, and he will always find a solution for our customer’s enquiries. His peers all speak highly of him and he really is Anne’s right-hand person, working with her on the ISO systems since they were achieved and making sure all staff work to the processes in place.

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Mark Ashbee – London Depot Manager

 

Mark Ashbee joined us in 2015 and has since used his hard-working attributes in helping lead our southern depot to success by enforcing his strong work ethic within his team and always offering a hand, no matter how large the task.

Mark’s main job roles include; delivering, servicing and collecting our portable VMS units along with helping on sales innovation depot visits. Over the past 6 years we have been often credited for Mark’s polite and attentive attitude towards our customers and other staff members.

Mark’s attitude and eagerness in the field is what comes to mind when thinking about MVIS growth and expansion. He embodies the MVIS ethos in his work and there is no one more fitting than Mark for the role of London Depot Manager. Ensuring the smooth running of a depot is a big task but Mark has never failed to keep MVIS rising above our competitors.

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Sean Brown – Marketing Manager

Sean Brown started with the group back in late 2019 to help build the companies’ in-house marketing department after years of agency management.

Since starting, Sean has taken on a wide range of responsibilities and implemented new systems, policies and upgrades relevant to our marketing and sales departments. Sean is also responsible for the development of the marketing team to ensure that we have strong marketing skills in-house.

With over 8 years marketing management experience and specialising in marketing infrastructure, he has a spectrum of skills useful to the company that previously weren’t honed in-house, allowing MVIS and Bartco UK to be more creative, responsive and dynamic than ever.

Sean has also taken a leading role in our Lead Generation operations over the past year. As demand for our products and services changed during the pandemic, Sean was on-hand to not only produce the material for new products, but also re-brand existing products with relevant selling points and benefits to better accommodate the new applications for our technology.

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Tom Hooton – Research and Development Manager

Joining Bartco UK in 2014, Tom Hooton has both grown within the company and helped the company grow, being instrumental in ground-breaking changes to our ITS solutions that have helped to drive the company forward. Whether it’s developing new products and solutions or find ways to improve our existing units with our warehouse team, we know that Tom is there to pass on his knowledge and experience to all departments, having time and patience for his co-workers.

Beginning his journey with us as Delivery and Maintenance Support, Tom has continuously developed within his role over the past 7 years, most recently taking on a Level 5 Apprenticeship in Management to accompany his role as Research and Development Manager, which he was promoted to from Technical Supervisor earlier in the year.

His initiative, determination and ability to think outside of the box has seen Tom develop his knowledge in using CAD software and with this has developed new, bespoke solutions. Tom also holds on-site cards such as his CSCS and Highways England Passport and he has a hands-on approach when it comes to understanding all of our units.

Being with us for 7 years shows Tom’s dedication to his role here with us. Monitoring the industry for the newest innovations, gaps in the market and other opportunities, he ensures that he is aware of the latest technologies so that we can stay cutting edge, competitive and of course, helpful to our customers. 

Over the past few months, our UK Group Commercial and Operations Director, Anne Ashman has been hard at work training for a 75 mile walk with the National Forest which will be completed over 3 days including camping in order to raise awareness and funds for three charities close to her heart. These charities are:

National Arboretum Memorial Company

DMRC Benevolent Fund

National Forest Company

Raising money for charity isn’t something new to Anne. In 2017 she and our newly appointed Research and Development Manager, Tom Hooton took part in running 100 miles for Sands, a charity dedicated to supporting those affected by stillbirth and neonatal death and together raised over £5000 for this incredible charity.

Since then, Anne has organised multiple ways in both giving back to the community as well as fundraising for local charities within MVIS such as a carboot that we were able to raise over £300 and are currently holding a 4 week company `bake off` all for Ashgate hospice care.

Anne has written on her fundraising page “To finish at the Arboretum will be amazing. Being brought up having had a grandad who fought in WW2 and the sacrifices that were made to give us the freedom we have, also the freedom I have discovered this last year out walking in the beautiful scenery makes me want to give something to the 3 charities”.

Understanding the importance of mental health and how fitness can have a huge impact on our mental and physical wellbeing, here at MVIS and Bartco UK we encourage a healthy lifestyle and have activities in place to try and get each of the team involved in taking advantage of the opportunities that we offer. In 2019 we entered our staff in a Corporate Sports Day local to our Matlock HQ and have since held activities such as our monthly litter pick and sponsored works for charities. As well as physical activity, we provide our team with fruit, this fruit is free to all of our staff and we encourage them to take advantage. With Anne taking part in this challenge she has inspired the team to increase their own fitness goals and work towards leading healthier lifestyles.

Anne`s dedication towards her charity work has seen her maintaining a strict schedule of continuous training, even when she went on a two-week vacation she was taking long trails each morning to maintain her fitness and motivation.

If you would like to donate towards Anne`s challenge and support these 3 charities, then please follow the link below. Good Luck Anne and bring on the next challenge!

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AnneAshman1/2