As 2009 finishes we all reflect on what the past year has brought us all and i must say with things in our personal lives im glad to see the back of it.
Workwise i dont think things could have gone any better i know times have been tough and money is short for people but we have come through this terrible turbulent times in a new factory which we are in the process of buying and our Fireplace stocks have grown hugely.
Yes profits are down slightly but being house orientated people have mothballed projects and a few developers we deal with have dissapeared.
It could be alot worse i know of 6 local fireplace companies finishing business this year and i have noticed a few website firms shut too.
So as we await the new year and get things ready for what are normally a few busy months for fireplaces and stoves as the weather starts to get really cold i look back and think yes we have done ok were all intact our company is well known and has respect in the trade and im sure that here at Castfireplaces we have a very exciting 2010 ahead of us.
Im really looking forward to getting back to work and making progress in our aim to be the best known company on the internet and the 1st choice for buying all your fireplace products and im sure with all our staffs help and in particular our customers help we can achieve some real big results this year.
Posts Tagged ‘Stoves’
Buy an new Fireplace or Stove in the New Year
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009We can now offer logs for sale for all our Stove and Fireplace Customers
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009Cast Fireplaces can now offer loads of logs for sale via one of my very good friends who has loads of experience in the gardening and log supply industry.
Now im sure you are aware there are differnt types of logs ie hard wood and soft wood and what he supplys is a mixed load so it burns better.
We have been having logs of paul for ages and i can personally guarantee how good they are the latest batch he dropped me off were cherry and they were in tree like form as he had not split them so ill tell you more tomorrow how i got on with that.
He offers the logs he supplys in either tonne bags or as a full load on his transit tipper which is better value for money.
As he is one of my ggod mates ive said ill add him a section on our new website so customers can order and pay for them online.
However at the moment he only sells within a 20 mile Radius of Ripley as this is where we are based and its not economical to send out by Pallet service.
So if you are within 20 miles of us give him a ring on 07970 958432 and im sure he will be more than happy to help you out and if you have ordered a stove from us recently there will be a leteer offering his services coming through the post to you
Fuel for Fireplaces How do you split yours
Saturday, December 19th, 2009Ok im sat in my office at 9pm just writing a little article for our website i have the blinds open as i look out to the garden where it has a nice covering of snow and it is snowing quite heavily.
Now i love the winter weather and love snow and both my kids are really excited about going sledging as i am now laughing to myself as i bought two shiny red sledges today from Franks Warehouse in Ripley just on the off chance.
So after i get back from deliverys (Weather permitting im off sledging)
Anyway back to the point i have had some cherry wood dropped off at our factory in large tree trunk sizes that have been chain saw cut to around 10″ perfect for all our Multi Fuel Stoves
So went i went to the factory today to meet customer collecting Pembroke Fireplace i took my large axe with me. So van loaded and fireplace loaded in to Customers van i thought i will just have a quick try.
Anway all set up and i swung the axe Boing it just bounced straight off just making a small axe head dent.
Right then another bigger swing and it did split it this time i chopped about 3 or 4 trunk size pieces up and my arms were aching back was aching and i hadnt even touched the pile.
I can honestly say i did not realise how much hard work it was. So i thought to myself i know Walvins has large hydraulic spliiter ill google it and see what i can get so when i was back in my office im now the proud new owner of 6 ton Log splitter which im told will be delivered in three days maximum.
Cant wait to try it out im now having a huge amount of timber from Paul and me and him are going to log it up.
He runs a gardening business and has huge amount of wood he now is going to sell logs to our customers who buy solid fuel fireplaces from us and yipee i will get mine for free.
What a deal i cant go wrong i just pass on his details with every stove or fireplace i sell and i get large tree trunks delivered for me to split with my new toy.
Stupid isnt it that im quite looking forward to spending a day between Christmas and New Year making solid fuel for my Stove.
Why the rush on Gallery Fireplace Gas Stoves whats going on
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009We have had a very unusual event happening to us over the last few week we have sold 5 Gas stoves in the last ten days now we dont normally sell that many in 2 months but strangely enough we have now sold 5 in just over a week.
We have sold 3 Firefox 5 Gas Stoves, 1 Tiger and 1 Firefox 8 all for coal effect natural gas use, as we do not keep any gas stoves in stock we have had to order them in which arrived from our great suppliers straight away.
Now the vast majority of stoves we sell are for multifuel use it seems strange to me with the price of gas why we have sold so many.
Yes they are very clean and make no mess when using and are 73% efficient so they try there best not to spin your gas meter off the wall to create some heat. Surely the idea of having a stove is to fill it with wood coal etc and sit back and watch and listen to the fire heat your home or am i being nostalgic.
I have said before how much i love fire and watching my Tiger plus stove roar way on a cold winters evening it would seem strange just twisting the gas knob and watch it jump into life.
But hey thats just me im not complaining about sales i must just be getting old and not liking change speaking of fires im now going to fill our wood basket and get the stove lit (still having damp logs problem so coal again for the bed)
We are running low on Lytton and Jubilee Fireplaces and Firefox 5 Stoves
Monday, December 7th, 2009Well what a mad month we are having and the gallery group the people whose range of Fireplaces and Stoves we stock are very busy too.
As always at this time of year we always seem to run short of certain items due to stock shortage us here at Castfireplaces are in a better position than most fireplace shops as we do hold large amounts of stock at our factory.
However this has not proved enough and again we have run out of Firefox 5 Stoves, we also only have 2 Lytton Highlighted fireplaces and 3 Jubilee fireplaces left till after Christmas infact the new year.
Gallery themselves also have none of these items till January so thats it really 1st come 1st served gets the last of thses items.
Im not 100% sure why they have run out im told it is down to order levels and they did not expect to move some many in the Credit crunch crisis.
Well that seems not have hit our trade too hard and as we have seen a large shift again to solid fuel stoves and fireplaces this seems to have carried on right through “Heating Season”
Last week we had hearth deliverys to replace all our sold stock and these arrived just in time as we were down to the last few in stock.
Still only two weeks to go till Party day with the Fireplace Lads looking forward to it again a full day boozing in my home town of Nottingham.
Anyway if we do run out completely of any fireplaces or stoves i will let you know and offer an alternative to the option you have chosen so fingers crossed it wont be too bad but at the rate there going we will be out of lyttons and Jubilees by the end of this week but what can i do about it they are on the way from China.
Firefox 5 Stoves are due to arrive tomorrow
Sunday, November 29th, 2009Hooray at last we are due to have another 12 Firefox 5 Stoves arrive on monday after having 4 delivered on Friday that we were not expecting, this allowed us to deliver two today to customers in London who were very pleased to get the stoves earlier than they and we expected.
Now we do have 12 coming into stock but we only have four left available to purchase as we have been taking pre orders of the Firefox 5 since we knew we would run short and we had presold the 12 we had allocated to us.
So these four are available and they are probably not going to be back in stock again untill early January after these have gone so if you are looking for a new multi fuel stove we do have stocks of all the others and do not expect to run out in the mad rush but you never know.
On another note it is again the last day of the month on ” Cyber Monday” and it again is time to feature some of the other items we sell on on our website that you might not be aware of its called our featured items section.
So keep your eyes out for these new posts and see what we have to offer
People do read our Fireplace articles section
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009I have often wondered how many people are interested in what we do here at Castfireplaces and whether they do read our Articles section to find out information about the range of Fireplaces we stock.
Well we do have Google analytics set up on this website so we can see how many pages are being visited and exactly which page and this month so far we have had 330 people read our article section.
It is very time consuming writing an article every day and i was toying with the option of writing 2 or 3 times a week as i often find myself blooging away late at night when i should be relaxing.
Now when i started this section which now has 215 articles in it was easy to write the content as we had loads to write up about now i know i have to revisit certain subjects but i do think it is a good form of media to give our customers an insight into what we are doing and what we offer here at Castfireplaces so i will try and continue writing articles.
Most things we write about are relevant to our customers and with the new updated site ready to go live there is alot of features and things we need to show you and im so tempted to give you a quick glimpse of what we have on offer but i have resisited it and i must say i am very excited about it all being changed over it really is the most simple easy way to shop online im 100% sure we have got it right so there is not long to wait now i feel like im awaiting a grand opening i hope all our customers old and new will enjoy shopping online with us.
As with our normal practice you do not have to order online that is why we show our phone number everywhere we do like chatting to customers we are not one of those faceless unfriendly websites where you can not speak to anyone so if you do want a chat about a fireplace or stove ar any info you require pick up the phone it is always nice to hear from you.
Gallery Fireplaces Firefox 8 Multi Fuel Stove in Customer Gallery
Monday, October 19th, 2009So i said i was going to return to our customer gallery feature and show you a few of our range of Gallery Fireplaces and Stoves that previous customers of ours have fitted in their own homes.
I did a little blog about this particular stove before because when i had got home from delivering it in the morning i had on my pc an email from the Customer
Mark Adams.
Hi
I recently purchased a Firefox stove from you which was burning within 3 hours of delivery.
We are very pleased with it and more importantly we were very impressed that it arrived when you said it would and that it was delivered right to the Hearth!
Thank you for your reliability
Now that is impressive by any imagination they were enjoying a nice fire in a stove i had only just delivered before i had even arrived home also attached to the email was a picture of Firefox 8 Multifuel stove with ash in it.
I think that is quite amusing no sooner had i delivered onto the hearth in the friont room and driven off were they there unboxing it an connecting it up to use so i thought i will add this picure of this to our customer gallery to see if it gives anyone inspiration to try and beat this installation time im pretty sure it will be a hard act to follow so have a look at this Firefox 8 stove heating up Jennys house 3 hours after delivery
Stoves and Fireplace Delivery and general update
Friday, October 16th, 2009Another big day delivering fireplaces and stoves again today I have been to South Wales and Gloucestershire and Worcestershire working my way home with 10 drops to do most of which were Multi fuel Stoves which are not very nice to deliver as they are so heavy but all done now.
You know how I told you about the large delivery of timber we had that now has been turned into timber surrounds in all shapes and sizes and we have a few new designs which we are photographing on the 30th October to go straight onto our website keep a look out for these new items as they are very impressive and look fantastic.
I am glad the weekend is here and my delivery skills are on hold till Monday when I go to Norwich we have Stuart back for this weekend (Back from Paternity leave) and I have roped one of my good friends to take my place this Sunday as im going to watch Carl Froch boxing on Saturday night and seeing as he doesn’t fight till 2.30 am I do not think I would be fit to drive Sunday at 5am delivering fireplaces so thanks Paul I owe you a huge night out at my expense (knowing how he drinks it will be expensive)
Rhian has again been very busy in the office over the last two days as I’ve been out delivering Thursday and Friday but she really does know what she is doing and has made my work when I return so simple every company needs a Rhian but they can’t have her she is ours.
Ok I am off now to raise all Sundays delivery notes and thanks to all of our customers this week for all your orders I am so glad Stuarts back otherwise I would have to start working nights too.
Where are all these Fireplaces and Stoves going to Fit
Thursday, October 1st, 2009Yet more Multi fuel stoves have arrived yesterday (Wednesday) and we have had more arrive on Tuesday this week, stock seems to be coming and going at an alarming rate not that I am complaining. Our Factory is groaning at the seams and 1700 sq ft is a lot to fill with fireplaces we even have more items in stock now than some of our suppliers during this busy time of year.
We continue to keep our supply times to within ten days as we have increased all our fireplace stocks to keep up with demand.
Timber mantels have been arriving from the workshop daily in vanloads and we are now well ahead on manufacture time to keep our stocks high.
This also is coupled with two new oak design timber fireplaces that will be going on our website as soon as I can get some time to add them.
They look absolutely fantastic and are sure to big sellers over the next few months and we will be listing them as packages and on there own to buy too so please keep checking back.
As with all our Timber Surrounds we can manufacture to any size to suit your requirements.
Stu who does a lot of our fireplace deliveries is also very good at website design and pc admin work and is doing work now on our website alongside our design company to get this update ready for going live wait till you see what we have done it works great and we are just ironing out the small creases for it to go live as most items are being listed manually its very time consuming but it will not happen again I am assured.
Anyway that’s the boring bit out the way still no sign of the new arrival in our family (Stuart and Theas 1st Baby) so I am on long distance deliveries again today in Devon and The South West so Rhian is in charge of office and all orders I’m just the delivery man but that’s the most important part of our job and I love meeting our customers so if you do get me on your delivery do not tempt with tea biscuits or cakes as I may stop for ages chatting plus I’m on a diet too must keep up the hard work.