2021 proved to be another eventful year at Tekeurope. It saw major building work at the company’s headquarters, new industry partnerships, major internal projects and a lot of new faces. In this post we look back at the last 12 months.
Building work and solar panels
The Spring of 2021 saw the beginning of major building work at the company’s headquarters. This began with the installation of an entirely new roof, complete with solar panels. The installation took place in 3 stages, with the roof itself fitted one half at a time over 2 weekends. The final stage involved the installation of 186 solar panels, which are expected to generate over 90% of the electricity used by the company.
More work took place later in the year in various areas of the building. This included a new ceiling and LED lighting in the sales and finance offices and the renovation of a back store room. This is set to continue into 2022 with work already underway on a new meeting and training room. A new photography setup is also planned for early in the new year.
Partnerships, projects and the stock take
The gaming side of the business was buoyed in early 2021 by the company becoming both Steelseries and Sandberg authorised resellers. This allowed products to be sold from the 2 well known gaming brands on Tekeurope’s website. In addition the company became Dell EMC partners in May providing access to stock directly from Dell ensuring the best prices for our customers.
With climate change issues at the forefront Tekeurope’s own environmental plan was drawn up in March, aiming to “reduce the environmental impact from our business operations by reducing unnecessary waste, investing in greener technologies, and encouraging our workforce to take proactive steps”. Work towards this goal is already underway with new electric vehicles and the installation of solar panels.
After its launch in October of 2020 the company’s website saw major changes and expansion in 2021 with now more than 5,000 product lines available up from an initial 1,300. The Laptop Spares section was also created, allowing users to shop for parts by machine model and this has proved extremely popular.
The change in trading conditions post Brexit have provided a number of challenges. In order to meet some of these challenges Tekeurope Spain was established in January with the aim of strengthening the company’s logistics within the EU ensuring continued support for EU customers.
Finally a stock check of the company’s entire inventory of nearly 50,000 parts took place back in May, with the team involved working hard and completing it in a single weekend.
Training, milestones and new arrivals
As the company continues to grow so do staff numbers in order to meet the increased workload that new business brings. This began in 2021 with the arrival of 2 new Engineering Apprentices. In June the company was delighted to welcome experienced Sales Executive Neil Fawthrop to the sales team. The warehouse team also continues to grow with more new arrivals due to start in the new year.
At the other end of the scale the last year also saw more experienced staff members reach significant milestones, with amongst others, John Mag and Jon Davis celebrating 10 and 15 years at the company respectively.
It is of course important to also continue to invest in existing staff members. A number of training courses took place during the year covering a range of topics from heavy lifting to social media. 2 of Tekurope’s existing apprentices also completed their course during this period.
Company Social Events
2021 began with the UK still in lockdown and chances to socialise extremely limited with many staff working almost exclusively from home. However an effort was still made with food organised for staff on both National Fish and Chip Day and Chocolate Day.
The 2nd half of the year saw the relaxing of restrictions and more scope for social activities. In the summer a series of departmental meals out took place in Newton Abbot and neighbouring Torquay with teams once again able to meet. In December members of staff company wide had the chance to meet for the Christmas party after the cancellation of the event in 2020.
