There have been a number of articles in this magazine over the last year or so which make comparisons between agents and representatives. I believe they are heavily biased towards representatives, the most recent of them even more so. Therefore, I welcome this opportunity to try to redress the balance.

In an increasingly competitive market, it is becoming harder and harder for nursery retailers, especially the independent, to maintain sales whilst achieving decent margins.

As all employers will know, the sheer raft of legislation that businesses have to deal with has increased substantially in recent years. Whether so much is needed is debatable. What does seem to be agreed on is that, for many employers, it can feel like walking through a minefield.

Referring to Carol Ainge’s comments on Safety Gates in Ni Opinion in the March issue we feel a fuller account should be given.

Firstly, Standards Committee Meetings for BSI (British Standards Institute), CEN (European Committee for Standardisation) and ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) are made up of experts from all sectors of the industry. These include; child safety experts from consumer associations, manufacturers, test laboratories, specialist consultancies, trade associations and specialist organisations.

Nursery Industry recently took a call from a concerned retailer who had just discovered that a certain supplier was selling direct to the public via eBay! The informant said that it was ‘an open secret’!

Meetings of the Standards committees are not open, and you cannot ask for an audience to voice concerns or opinions. Therefore it seemed appropriate to have an open forum on Jan 29th where many parties could come together and petition the committee as one voice. Why?