As is always the case in modern politics, we all knew the PBR headline measures before Alaistair Darling stood up in the House of Commons on Monday. So no surprise that the headline rate of VAT went doen from 17.5% to 15%. But what does it mean internally for a company like The Corporate Gifts Company? In short, a big headache! Lots of disruption, lots of changes to systems, pricing, pricelists, websites etc etc.

Obviously, we’d all do anything required if it meant that it will kickstart the economy and persuade individuals and corporates to loosen the purse strings in the run up to Xmas. Personally I think with more bad news (tax rises, a rise in NI etc) not that far away, I don’t think the UK public or businesses are that gullable. Well, we’ll see.

Of course, as a B2B promotional gifts website, The Corporate Gifts Company sells its advertising products ex-VAT (i.e. prices are quoted without VAT which is added at the end at the time of invoice). And as it all just goes round in a circle (effectively collecting and looking after the government’s tax for a short period of time) it doesn’t mean an awful lot!

So, in the world of corporate gifts it’s on with the work, stay positive, and fingers crossed.

I have to take my hat off to our dedicated team of web designers (you know who you are), what a fantastic job. After enthusing only a few days ago about the upcoming launch of our new site www.promotional-gifts-co.com pencilled in, somewhat optimistically I thought, for January, we now have a live site featuring almost 10,000 promotional products, business gifts and advertising incentives.

Everything from (and you must check this out!) promotional umberellas http://www.promotional-gifts-co.com/products/Promotional_Products_30_Inch_Umbrellas_74.html

to promo baseball caps http://www.promotional-gifts-co.com/products/Promotional_Products_6_Panel_Caps_87.html

and from advertising pens http://www.promotional-gifts-co.com/products/Promotional_Products_Ballpoints1_59.html

to corporate clocks http://www.promotional-gifts-co.com/products/Promotional_Products_Desk_Clocks_107.html

We’re not finished yet, of course, there’s plenty more where they came from and we’ll be adding more products every week to give you the biggest and best range of promotional products and business gifts anywhere on the web. Not to mention the special features that will make your sourcing experience for promotional products even better.

So, now, if you can’t find what you need on our usual site www.corporate-gifts-co.com, then check out www.promotional-gifts-co.com and that should well and truly fix you up for your promotion or corporate event. And if you still can’t find what you’re looking for (and how likely is that with 10,000 products to choose from!?) then we will scour the earth to find it for you - just pick up the phone and call our dedicated promotional gift sales team on 0845 430 2902.

Today, our team embarked on the design and production of a new website specifically for promotional products. As you will no doubt know (as you’re actually on the site now) our current website www.corporate-gifts-co.com specialises in affordable design-led high end premiums and executive incentives, but we recognise that our standard range is not always appropriate for every corporate event or promotional activity.

Of course, we have years of sourcing expertise and are always delighted to help our customers find exactly the right business gift for their particular promotion, but it is difficult for customers to grasp when our crrent website promotes mainly high quality silver and leather gifts.

The new website www.promotional-gifts-co.com will, therefore, concentrate on offering value solutions, high volume promotional products and giveaways; everything from pens to baseball caps, and umberellas to polo shirts.

What will make us different from all the other general promotional websites out there? Well, as part of the Corporate Gifts Company family, you can be assured that our service and quality will be second to none and our 20 years of experience of delivering promotional solutions on time and to budget will set us apart from the crowd.

Launch will be early January, so, as they say, watch this space. But in the meantime, if you do have any general promotional product enquiries, then call our experienced sales team and we will be able to source the right product for your promotion.

Here at the Corporate Gifts Co we are always working to develop and expand our product range, and despite all the economic doom and gloom, we are striving forward with some really exciting new promotional product ideas for 2009. After all, promotional activity is essential to drive your company forward, whatever the economic outlook, and when it’s this bad, you need new and cool incentives and premiums to drive new sales.

So what are we working on?

Well, we are developing a range of eco-friendly, ethically sourced awards which will be available in standard models “off the shelf” and also bespoke options using our free design service.

My favourite is a new innovative range of promotional aluminium folders and office accessories manufactured in the UK. Again, these will be available off the shelf and as special bespoke orders. These will be great for promotion of documents and product launches and, well, the list is endless.

More Sterling Silver; our current range of sterling silver promotional items is proving so popular we are working hard on significantly expanding the range.

That’s just a small selection of the new promotional incentives we’ll be launching next year. Some are already available so if you’re particularly interested in any of the above, give our promotions sales team a call. As they say, watch this space!

The Corporate Gifts Company have totally revamped our home page and templates to do justice to our unique collection of quality design-led corporate gifts.

We tried to put ourselves in the buyer’s shoes and immediately felt sorry for you guys out there sourcing your corporate incentives. Why? Well, there’s a lot of very “samey” looking corporate and business gift websites out there. ; how do you decide which website to contact? Not only that, with the bewildering choice of product they feature, how do you wade through the promotional products on there to find something that is suitable for your promotion?

Now, the Corporate Gifts Company are not trying to be all things to all buyers (to be honest, I’m not sure anyone could honestly pull that one off) but we have a very specific quality design-led range of promotional items and we felt that our site needed to tell you that from the very first millisecond that you viewed the home page. And we wanted to make it a bit Chritmassy too.

Hope you like it; www.corporate-gifts-co.com