RECORD ROCK SALT SALES AS ATLANTIC SNOW STORM APPROACHES UK.

PRESS RELEASE - 7TH DECEMBER 2011.

Flintshire based Dandy’s Rock Salt Supplies have seen sales of road grit and de-icing salt hit an all-time high as telephones ring off the hook and websites see a jump in visitors, after an official weather warning is released.

Dandy’s Rock Salt Supplies of Flintshire, near Cheshire, have seen sales of rocksalt and de-icing grit rocket as an official heavy snowfall weather warning is issued to parts of the UK.

The BBC and Sky News who amongst others use a traffic lighting system for weather warnings, have reported that there is a yellow level chance of snow and sleet in Scotland and parts of Northern England this week.

Weather experts expect the snow storm to travel down the country with the Midlands being the most affected on Thursday afternoon, leading through to Friday.

Winds of up to 80mph will be pushing the Atlantic snow storm across the UK and a red level warning has been released for this with some schools already cancelling transportation in anticipation of the dangerously fast gusts.

News of the expected snow and the recent flurry already seen in Northern Scotland earlier this week, saw Dandy's Rock Salt Supplies reach record sales figures, smashing targets set for the year.

The company has already provided one global retailer based in the UK, with all of its de-icing salt supplies, as well as a number of councils, businesses, the emergency services and homeowners across the country.

This has resulted in the huge amount of rock salt which was shipped into Dandy’s packaging plant at the start of the summer, already having been packed up and shipped out.

Although the rock salt mountain at Dandy’s premises on Deeside Industrial Park is still substantial, the company expect the record sales so far for this year to be a clear indication of things to come, and so more stock has already been secured to ensure that the company is able to keep up with the increased demand for its products.

UK Sales Manager, Simon Hughes, commented; "We've seen a steady increase year on year for sales of our de-icing range but with so many competitors flooding the market we didn't expect sales to rocket as they have done this year.

I attribute our success to our new, easy to use website and also the fact that we've got the best sales team we've ever had promoting the business and our products.

One major retailer pre-bought supplies from us this year after they saw record sales of our products last year when they came on board as a new re-seller. On top of this we have seen many returning customers as well as new shoppers taking advantage of our pre-season prices and special advent offers for December."

About Dandy's:

Dandy's have been a family run business since 1826 and continue to be so despite rapid growth propelling them from a small to medium sized business over the past four years. The business relocated to Deeside Industrial Park in late 2010 and plans to expand next year with North Wales first truck stop. Dandy's are award winning, market leading suppliers of topsoil, gardening and landscaping supplies as well as home fuels and rock salt and de-icing supplies.

£200 RAISED AT DANDY'S FOR CHILDREN IN NEED...

Dandy's successfully raised £200 for Children in Need with their fancy dress fund raiser held at their Rock Salt storage facility in Deeside, Flintshire on Friday last week.

The company also had a bake sale at Dandy's HQ and ran a "donate 5% of your order to Children in Need" voucher code, inviting customers shopping online at DandysRockSalt.co.uk and DandyGardenCentre.co.uk to allow Dandy's to make a donation on their behalf.

FANCY DRESS FRIDAY AT DANDY'S HQ THIS WEEK FOR CHILDREN IN NEED...!

Watch this space folks - it's fancy dress Friday so all of the team will be donning silly hats and fake moustaches in honour of Pudsey Bear and Children In Need this Friday.

We're also having a bake sale so if you're in the area pop in for a brownie and a photo with one of the gang for the website!

DANDY'S GARDEN CENTRE ASSIST IN SACK RACE WITH A DIFFERENCE...

Dandy's Rock Salt Supplies parent company; DandysGardenCentre.co.uk, recently came up trumps for a London based community garden project after their garden and grounds were destroyed during the riots of 2011.

The award winning company sent some of their quality topsoil and turf down to the project co-ordinators to get them back on their feet.

The garden has never looked better and it was a project which Dandy's were keen to get involved with as part of their commitment to charities, community projects, environmental awareness and to top it all off; all of that new turf being grown on Dandy's quality topsoil can only help to lessen the company's carbon footprint; bringing them one step closer to their goal of becoming carbon neutral by the end of 2015!

Most recently, kids from the local area were out in the garden having a sack race in the bulk bags which Dandy's supplied the topsoil in - a real novel way to recycle the bulk bags and one that the company hopes will catch on!

LEST WE FORGET...

This Friday marks the most unique remembrance day yet as at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month of 2011, the nation will pause.

Here at Dandy's the 'phones will go off, the diggers will stop and we will all fall silent and take two minutes to reflect on the sacrifice of our brave Service men and women from conflicts past and present.

To show our support for the poppy appeal Dandy's will be making a donation from all orders put through checkout on both of our websites; DandysGardenCentre.co.uk and DandysRockSalt.co.uk, using the voucher code 'remember'.

This code tells us that you, as our customer, want to show your support and have us donate 5% of your total spend to the poppy appeal.

We'll total up and be back with an update first thing Monday morning!

DAILY EXPRESS REPORTS: BIG SIBERIAN FREEZE TO HIT BRITAIN...!

The latest in a run of stories focusing on the expected big freeze to hit Britain this winter has been released by the national newspaper. The article reports that sources are expecting temperatures to hit -15C in December.

The newspaper also reports that 

"Winter weather will arrive with a vengeance with temperatures well below zero within the next fortnight."

The Express has released a number of articles along these lines; the most recent reporting on the fact that British troops are being prepped to go on standby ready to assist if the weather turns as badly and as quickly as is expected by leading sources.

To coincide with this news release we have launched our re-sellers retail packs of 10kg rock salt bags which feature bar-coded bags with handles to enable ease of carrying. Order today and you'll also get free POS and you'll be able to take advantage of our special re-sellers price of just (from) £2.49 per bag delivered + vat. RRP is £4.99 per bag so there's great room for you to make good margins if you intend to sell on!

10m PALLETFORCE/DANDYS DEAL KEEPS UK ON IT'S FEET...!

Dandys Rock Salt .co.uk have today announced news of a deal reached between Dandy’s and award winning Palletforce member, Farralls Transport for the successful company to become their sole pallet network provider in the UK for the next two years; with a view to extend the deal in 2013 by an additional five years.

As the only UK based rock salt supplier able to have continuously supplied the general public as well as businesses up and down the country with much needed grit during the worst three winters in over two decades it was pivotal for Dandy’s to ensure that they have a sole provider and one that would excel all year round no matter the weather or volume of pallets being sent out.

The deal, worth an estimated £10million over the next seven years, is the result of an enormous amount of hard work and outstanding levels of customer service given by the team at Farralls Transport and other Palletforce members when delivering Dandy’s freight over the past eight months.

Managing Director of Dandy's Rock Salt .co.uk, Adam Dandy, commented; "Farralls Transport are absolutely second to none. They are permanently focused on continuously improving their service to us, with weekly meetings taking place with our Logistics Supervisor and General Manager. They listen to our concerns and act quickly to meet our needs; Mike and Elaine Farrall and their whole team have given us the confidence to commit to them as our sole provider for the foreseeable future.

As a user of pallet networks for over five years we have tried many other suppliers and can wholeheartedly say that the service our customers receive from Palletforce as a network is without doubt the best in the industry."

The Dandy's contract also includes the distribution for all of the company’s spring and summer goods from their garden related websites, Dandys Topsoil .co.uk and Dandys Garden Centre .co.uk.

DAILY EXPRESS REPORTS ARMY LINED UP TO HELP OUT DURING EXPECTED COLD WEATHER AND SNOW...

The Daily Express have reported that the soldiers in the UK have been enlisted and put on standby to "save the frail and elderly if this winter is as devastating as last year."

The article goes on to state, "Level 1 would see the roll-out of general preparations across the NHS, such as the flu vaccination programme.

Health and social care teams will identify those at risk in prolonged sub-zero temperatures, and battle strategies will be drawn up.

Level 2 would kick in when there is a 60 per cent chance of severe winter weather arriving within two or three days.

At this stage the teams would visit vulnerable pensioners to ensure their homes are insulated and heated and that they have claimed all additional benefits they are entitled to.

Media campaigns would be launched offering advice on staying warm, stocking up on medications and food, checking room temperatures and keeping an eye on vulnerable neighbours.

The thick blanket of snow that brought parts of the country to a standstill last year would be defined as Level 3.

In this event health and social care teams would make street-by-street visits or daily phone calls to at-risk residents.

This would require the help of local volunteers. It means the pensioner has a “champion” to ensure emergency action is taken if, say, a boiler has broken down.

A Level 4 alert would come if conditions were so bad that ordinary ambulance services could not get the sick to hospital.

This would be the stage at which the Army could be called in."

The article is just one of more and more stories popping up in the national press concerning the oncoming winter. Although we are currently experiencing unseasonably high temperatures for this time of year, the general feel is that we're playing a waiting game and that the weather is set to turn very cold, very quickly.

As a nation, we can all agree that schemes such as the one above are pivotal in keeping the more vulnerable amongst us safe this winter and, if the upcoming cold is being taken so seriously as to enlist the support of the army it is essential that we all follow suit and prepare ourselves for the likelihood of the coldest winter seen in over twenty years!

It is vital that rock salt supplies are secured early on if we are all to 'weather the storm'. As always, Dandy's would urge everyone to jump up now and grab their salt while stocks last and before it's too late. Once you're in three feet of snow; you're in!

DANDY'S PRICE PROMISE...

Here at Dandy's we believe that we offer the lowest prices on-line for all of our products; in fact, we do a daily scout of the web to ensure that we're not being beaten on price or quality! We also check out how much cheaper we are compared to local shops; did you know for example that most retailers like Spar, B&Q, as well as supermarkets like Asda and Tesco are selling 10kg of rock salt for around £7.99 whilst at www.dandysrocksalt.co.uk you can buy a 25kg bag for just £18.75 and have it delivered to your door - not only does the salt work out cheaper but you can order on-line in less than two minutes and get delivery the very next day - so you're saving on fuel and time costs too!

Because we're so confident that we can't be beaten like for like on quality and price we are once again running our price promise... if you find the same quality and quantity of goods for sale on-line somewhere else that's cheaper than Dandy's; we'll do our absolute utmost to beat that price - all you need to do is fill out a short form telling us what and where you've seen cheaper - you can do so here www.dandysrocksalt.co.uk/price-promise in a couple of seconds and we'll get back to you with our verdict and your special price as soon as we can!

NEW PRODUCTS LAUNCHED TODAY!

Today marks the first in a run of new products! We've created some exclusive combo packs to reflect the best products and deals available over at www.DandysRockSalt.co.uk.

The combo packs are on at amazingly low prices with up to 60% off the RRP!

You can now buy specially tailored kits for home-owners, for car parks and driveways as well as a range of all-in-one solutions. Head on over to the website now and get shopping - temperatures are dropping as fast as our prices!

TWEET TWEET...

We've reached the three hundred folks follower mark for our Twitter page.
Get all of the latest musings and tweety updates when you Follow @DandysRockSalt

It's also a great way to get news and offers and exclusive twitter discounts and freebies!

TWENTY FOUR HOUR PRODUCTION STARTS...

With rock salt mania peaking this week, Dandy's HQ have ramped up production to 24/7 with teams working through the night to get salt bagged up and palletised ready for despatch.

As temps continue to drop and with national press reporting of "ice-age" like seasons hitting us Brits the demand for salt has never been higher; couple that with the fact that we're currently giving away free, super cool Dandy's ice scrapers with every order AND the fact that we're offering snow shovels at half price with salt orders, we've had no choice but to switch to all hours production early this year... and we're loving it!

The robots are doing their bit and team Dandy are all enthusiastic about the coming winter; we all love to be busy and no Dandy's team member is happier than when all the 'phones are ringing and lovely fully loaded trucks are rolling in and out of HQ.

After a long, hot summer (sort of) saw record sales of exclusive to Dandy's Vegegrow Topsoil the landscaping and gardening supplies orders have tapered off and been replaced with the savvy shoppers loading up on rock salt, grit bins, snow shovels and spreaders! Show us how ahead of the game you are and get yours ordered now over at www.DandysRockSalt.co.uk!

EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT ROCK SALT...

...and some stuff you probably didn't!
Rock Salt is the common term used for Halite; the rock form of sodium chloride.

Typically the mineral form is white but it may also be light blue, dark blue, purple, pink, orange, grey or the traditional red colour associated with normal rock salt used for gritting. The colour, shade and intensity depends on the amount and type of impurities within the salt; with regards to normal rock salt as sold by Dandy's, the salt has a small amount of reddish brown clay in it.

De-icing salt is a mined substance, typically sourced in the North West of England from Morlock inhabited salt mines way underground. It is mostly used as a de-icing product to clear roads and paths of ice and snow following cold and frosty periods of weather.

Halite is different from other types of salt in the way that it is a rock rather than a mineral as one might expect; although this makes it a different compound entirely it does still have many similarities to mineral salts. Salt is something which is used day to day by every living soul on the planet; put simply, we need it to survive. As well as being one of the oldest food seasoning's known to mankind, salt has and is also used as a preservative - mostly for foodstuffs but the Egyptians used it to preserve bodies as part of the mummification process!

The Rock Salt which we mine in the UK exists in large bodies of water which evaporate and leave huge salt deposits which eventually become buried beneath the earth via natural processes.

For use as a de-icer, rock salt works by lowering the physical melting point of ice - termed "freezing point depression" - and melting the snow and ice and preventing it from re-freezing. When the rock salt is introduced to the solid form of water it adds more particles to the water, lowering the freezing point until it gets so low as the rock salt itself ceases to dissolve.

Salt will melt ice down to around minus twenty in a lab controlled environment - for those of us living in the real world it will melt ice and snow effectively up to freezing temperatures of around minus nine degrees; so if it gets any colder than that the salt itself is likely to freeze so keep it safe and dry it a grit bin to help reduce the chances of this happening to you!

LATEST ROCK SALT OFFERS...

There are some fabuloso offers over at the shop le Dandy's Rock Salt...

• Buy any de-icing salt product and get snow shovels for half price; that's less than eight quid a pop!
• If you're quick you can a free ice scraper with any order placed! Don't forget to add it to your cart if you want it otherwise we'll assume you don't like getting free stuff and you won't get one!
• Every shopper gets a forty quid voucher for nakedwines.com (we've sampled the vino ourselves; it's very good).
• If you spend over one hundred pounds you can get your stuff delivered the very next (working) day (providing you order before the cut off - usually 3pm, sometimes earlier - check the website for the latest times or give us a bell on 0845 456 3089).
• Use my secret blog reader voucher BLOG2510 for a lovely 10% discount.
• Check out the combo gritting packs for an all-in-one de-icing solution at discounted prices.

FAQs

Hit the title above to rock on over to Dandy's Rock Salt official website where you can check out all the salty questions we get from browsers and shoppers and the responses we give them!

SAVVY SHOPPERS BUY EARLY WITH 3000 TONNES OF ROCK SALT ON THE WAY TO DANDY'S HQ...

Dandy's super savvy shoppers have got ahead of the game to ensure that they can keep trading all winter long by stocking up on rock salt early with purchases from Dandy's totalling over three thousand tonnes.

Two of Dandy's more weather conscious clients have opted to pre-buy the shipment which is currently docked, awaiting pick up and delivery to Dandy's HQ in Deeside where it will be packed and shipped out once the customers require it. Buying de-icing salt in this way means that the two clients can be sure of servicing all of their own customers with ease all winter and need not worry about storing or running out of salt themselves.

The last two years running have seen Dandy's remain the only on-line retailer not forced to shut its doors after running out of salt, allowing us to keep all of our customers firmly on their feet all winter long.

You can buy rock salt, de-icing salt, exclusive to Dandy's UltraGrip Rock Salt and accessories like snow shovels, grit bins and gritting combo packs over at www.DandysRockSalt.co.uk; don't slip up; get your order in now before it's too late!

BRITAIN FACES "MINI ICE AGE"...

The Daily Express has reported today that Britain looks set to face a "mini ice age" this winter and perhaps in years to come.

Despite us Brits having an unseasonably warm October, temperatures are set to plummet with freezing temps as low as a shivery minus twenty degrees which will top last years coldest temperatures seen in fifty years.

Local councils have reported that they have more rock salt in stock than previous years but following the shambles of the past two years running despite similar claims, we at Dandy's would urge all savvy shoppers to get ahead of the rest and get salt ordered now.

We had many customers last year who had waited for the snow and ice before ordering their salt; at this point they had already had no choice but to shut their businesses to the public due to the properties being inaccessible for customers and suppliers alike. Similarly there were people who couldn't get the kids to school or themselves to work, not to mention all the folks who were left housebound because they couldn't get their cars off the drive!

We even had a few sore bums at Dandy's after a couple of staff went skidding across the car park before we managed to get the salt down; so despite having a veritable salt mountain on site even we occasionally fell prey to the unprepared-ness so take heed from us and get your order in at www.DandysRockSalt.co.uk now (shhh; use the voucher code BLOG2510 for 10% off!)!

DANDY'S UNVEIL LATEST DELIVERY VEHICLES...

Following the unprecedented early demand for rock salt and de-icing products, Dandy's have once again extended their fleet in order to keep up with demand.

The company's standard fleet consists of two multi drop, crane offload vehicles which service Chester and North Wales with deliveries of coal, logs and salt throughout the winter and landscaping and gardening supplies during the summer, two small vans for access to the harder to reach parts of North Wales and an eight wheeler, high sided bulk tipper for delivering loose loads up to 20 tonnes or 40 cubic metres!

Since Dandy's began selling online way back in 2004 the fleet has been expanded and improved and the use of pallet networks employed to allow the company to reach customers all over the country. Last year Dandy's partnered up with local hauliers, Farralls Transport, in order to continue to keep up with the high demand for salt.

Farralls, part of the Palletforce network, now take care of all of Dandy's nationwide bulk bag and palletised deliveries and following a successful trading period have liveried up one of their new curtain side delivery vehicles in the Dandy's colour scheme and logo.

The truck will be running goods from Dandy's HQ in Deeside down to the Palletforce central sorting hub in the Midlands ready for despatch to customers across the UK.

This is the latest addition to the Dandy's delivery fleet and it follows hot on the heels of Dandy's two electric cars which were added to the company fleet as part of Dandy's commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2015.

ROCK SALT TECHNICAL DATE AND COSHH INFO...

Rock Salt Data Sheet

Here you will find the relevant COSHH, safety and toxology information for our Ultragrip RockSalt, Traditional Rock Salt and White Rock Salt products. If you require any further information or are worried about the environmental aspects of using Rock Salt as a de-icer then please call us on 0845 456 3089.

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST...

We've been doing a lot of weather watching over at Dandy's HQ and we can confirm that it looks like it's going to be a very shivery winter indeed!

Better get stocked up on rock salt before it's all ice rink-ish on your driveway!