• MONDAY

It's an easy start to the week.  The suitcase has to be packed as usual but luckily no rush to a London airport as I only have to meet my customers at Stanstead at 20.00 hrs this evening. Only have to worry about the evening jam on the M25 today.  

Packing comes easy when you travel over 100,000 miles per annum and with suppliers as far apart as Taipei, Cape Town, Shanghai and Ghent to name but a few, this mileage is mandatory if you want to get the best from your suppliers. Luckily our customers are grouped a little closer together as our main market is the UK and Ireland. We are involved in selling to South Africa and Australia but these tend to be specific projects concerning specific products. It's never a bad thing when people/companies approach you to source certain things as this implies an inherent trust in you and your company to do a good job.

Into the office by 0800 hrs and spend the morning confirming various points from the previous week,  letting people know how certain projects are going and looking ahead at my Diary over the next 4 weeks. Taking responsibility for ones own travel arrangements takes up a lot of time but in the low cost travel era, the amount you can save from prudent bookings is enormous. 30 phone calls later and no small amount of e mails – both in and out – it's time to brave the M25. Over the years, the only flights I've missed are from Stanstead so I have a healthy respect for travelling time and leave in good time. We all meet up as per the schedule and arrive in Nuremberg late in the evening. Quick taxi ride to a beautiful medieval city. The weather is very hot and this hardly seems like an onerous job.

• TUESDAY 

The next morning we are up early and into the office to discuss our supply of roller fabrics both past, present and future, look into what new fabric/ trends we have coming through pre production for launching early 2008. 

During the afternoon we take a factory tour and see the many changes that have taken place since the last visit. European manufacturers of window blind fabrics are constantly replacing equipment and adding new facilities to make themselves more competitive, improve production efficiencies and ensure that quality continues to to be as consistent as possible. When you consider the importance of  all elements of blind fabrics - no contamination in yarns, base fabrics and coatings,  total stability with no twisting, cupping and then be able to supply the same designs and colours in different types of fabrics requiring different yarns and coatings – roller, vertical and pleated,  and still be as competitive as possible, it's no wonder these suppliers are a dedicated bunch whose roots go back to medieval times. There is a lot of knowledge and experience required in this game. The sad news is that one of our visitors is retiring later on this year and besides becoming a good friend has also contributed a lot to our knowledge of fabrics and the retail industry.

However, all thoughts regarding the future are pushed to one side during the evening as wonderful beer halls, a classic spanish meal - excuse me, are we still in Germany or not? and then the local  smoked beer to finish off, all follow in quick succession.

• WEDNESDAY

During the morning we are working on some specific development projects that are coming to fruition over the next few months.
As you would expect, with base fabrics becoming available from all over the world there are many options to consider for future fabric launches.

Europe tends to be the preferred source for both yarns and  woven fabric as the quality conformity and consistency is much better than imported ones. Speed of delivery and a fast response to increase in demand is essential in our industry and a reasonably local supplier has a major benefit here. Polyester tends to be the preferred yarn and then a large number of coatings giving performance related characteristics – flame retardant, dust or moisture repellent, anti bacterial, reflective for light and or heat are the basic ones but new possibilities are coming to the fore all the time.  A quick check of the wrist watch tells us we are running late and it's a quick dash back to the airport to find the flight has been delayed but luckily not too much.  Our next port of call is Paris and we arrive, yet again late in the evening but as is usual in Paris, never too late to eat and we visit one of the well know Brasseries in Paris, one of the originals. 

• THURSDAY

Whilst the factory of this supplier is situated just outside Paris, their offices are in the heart of the Marais district, close to the Bastille. We are only visiting the office today as again we have to discuss our current performance regarding logistics, sampling and other related issues that are best handled in the office.

The main products we are responsible for supplying from this company are wood and bamboo and we devote a long period discussing  the responsible souring policies that are in place to cover both product areas. Whilst we have full certification from FISC and also PEFC there are still timbers that companies like to buy where legal controls are not as tight as one would like.  Ongoing pressures will naturally affect this situation but in the meantime it's important to know exactly where you timber comes from and with a fairly extended supply chain, a good chain of conformity is the only way to achieve this.

The impending retirement of our customer manifests itself again in the form of an excellent lunch though we absolve any small guilty feelings by spending far too much time talking shop. 

The trouble with enjoying your business and working with people you like and admire is that you can't help talking business. Even if you exhaust the micro side of business – pricing, supply performance, quality issues you quickly get onto to issues like global supply and souring,  alternative products that can yield better pricing and then simple aspects like exactly what does your business mean to the workers on the ground in China, Taiwan and Vietnam. We all feel responsible for these important issues and I could tell many a tale to back up quite how important this approach is.

Before we know it, it's another dash across a city, this time to catch the Euro Star back to London and in the heat of Paris and the gentle movement of the train all thoughts of business tend to be of a more somnolent nature. We all say good bye at Waterloo, luckily this is not the final farewell and so we make plans for the next meeting in a few weeks time.

• FRIDAY

Back in the office again. It's a good day to confirm all the discussions that have taken place in the days before and also to catch up on the many e mails that have accrued in my absence.

This week , there weren't so many meetings but the content of what we had was very comprehensive and the follow through is vital.  !00 emails a day seems to be the industry norm and as I am away a lot my e mails are always looked at throughout the day and responded to as is necessary. 

I have yet to find the perfect way of reading e mails that have landed on your desk , some of which have been answered and still know exactly what is happening in your business life. E mails have a singular way of confusing me totally but I persevere and sometimes I really do think they are getting easier to follow. 

In no time at all, everyone else in the office is leaving and wishing me a good weekend –  surprise, surprise it's 5 o'clock. Just time to get a few more e mails off, a few notes to remind me of important things to do the following week and then it's home for some ‘R and R’ and a little ‘D and E’ if I'm honest.