The Stinkyink Story
2001
October Following the ‘Dotcom bubble burst’ John’s daughter announces that she has completed her Christmas shopping – online
November John tries to source some ink cartridges for his son’s printer (HP Business inkjet 2000C) after trying his local PC-World and Staples, looks online and realises the opportunity is there to establish a new store
December John Sollars starts to build database of printers and cartridges
December John selects ‘Actinic’ for Database and Shopping Cart
2002
March Website launched with first design done by Teclan
April 22nd Take first order online – Wahoo!!
August Worldpay confirm that most of the orders received over the past 6 weeks have been fraudlent and should be refunded. Total losses of £32K – John Devastated
September After a long conversation with his Dog, John decides to stick with the business and push it forward
2003
February Rob Sollars refreshes the website
March Val Hinton joins the company part time as bookkeeper
April Roy Marsh joins the company full time as Sales and Purchasing assistant
September James Wilkes joins as Database Manager
2004
September Move from John’s home to The Old Carpet Factory, Alveley Industrial Estate, Bridgnorth WV15 6HG
2005
March Premises burgled, all stock stolen plus PC’s and Printers. Fortunately we had an off site backup so the business was back up and running in two days. Insurance paid out in full. John beginning to feel jinxed!
July Sandra Wilson joins the company as Stores Assistant
2006
June Joy Grubb joins as Stores Assistant
June Company wins the Shropshire Chamber of Commerce ‘Best Small Business in 2006’ award
September Moved into present unit, which had just been built by Bridgnorth District Council and Advantage West Midlands (now both defunct!)
2007
January Rob Williams joins as Web Designer
May New Website designed by Rob Williams
November Company runner up in FSB 'Small Business Champions' Retail category
2008
May Julia Crampton joins the company as Stores Assistant
2009
Spring James Wilkes leaves the company
Spring Huw Carrington joins the company as Customer service representative
September Install Axis Diplomat back end software
October Val Hinton retires on medical grounds
October Matt Bird joins the company as Internet Marketing Engineer
October David Gough joins the Company as Operations Director
2010
Spring Rob Williams unleashes new website design on an unsuspecting world
September Rob Sollars leaves for the last time to pursue his career in Software Engineering in London
September Roy Hamilton comes down from Dundee to join the company as Customer service representative
December Andy Warburton joins as Website Designer and Software support Engineer
2011
January Work begins on top secret project 'Magellan'
April The tech team completely rebuild our website, replacing Actinic Catalog with a bespoke system powered by Ruby on Rails
August The tech team launch an all new look and feel for the website, produced in conjunction with Starfish Internet and add online account functionality along with a multitude of other new features
September Rich Grundy joins as Web Developer
