If you’re a George colleague with a keen interest in fashion we’re offering you the chance to come to George House and meet one of the UK’s leading fashion industry experts.

Hilary Alexander was the Daily Telegraph’s top fashion expert for 25 years before semi-retiring last year. She was recently honoured by the Council of Fashion Designers of America and twice named British Fashion Journalist of the Year by British Fashion Council.

Hilary will be visiting George House on 1st June to talk about the British fashion Industry and George’s influence within it.

As a trustee of Graduate Fashion Week, she’ll also talk about the importance of the event and George’s role as title sponsor – and she will take part in an interview session and open Q&A hosted by Fiona Lambert.

If you’d like to register your interest in coming to the event please enter your details in the form below by Monday 7th May. You must be available to visit George House on 1st June at 12.30pm. The event will finish at 1.45pm. See full terms and conditions here.

This competition has now closed.

Thanks to all our George colleagues for your hard work! We’ve entered our clothing into several categories of the Prima High Street Fashion Awards.

The Comfort Prima High Street Fashion Awards is the UK’s largest high street fashion event in support of Breakthrough Breast cancer.

George has entered for the following categories this year:

• Best Beachwear Range
• Best Customer Service
• Best Everydaywear
• Best Jeans
• Best Lingerie Collection
• Best Occasion Wear Collection
• Best Online Brand
• Best Shoes
• Best Supermarket Range
• Value For Money
• Best Workwear
  
  

Voting for the awards is open until 31st May and everyone who votes is in with a chance to win £500 worth of High-Street Fashion vouchers.

Please cast your vote in the survey here and ask your family and friends to vote too!

You can find out more about the awards here.

Last week at the Asda Awards in Liverpool we heard some truly inspirational stories of colleagues who have gone above and beyond the call of duty. George’s very own Senior Ethical Manager Indira Chauhan won three awards including the overall Asda colleague of the year.

Those who had the honour of attending this wonderful evening were very proud of Indi’s incredible achievement and how she leads the way in Ethical Sourcing. She does this not just in the UK for George and Asda but for Walmart as well, really making a difference to the lives of people in our factories across the world.

Paul Wright Head of Ethical and Quality said “An amazing evening and fantastic recognition for a colleague in a million. Indi is a true brand ambassador for George around the world. She has over the years gained the respect of colleagues, suppliers and her peers within the industry. Indi has a natural ability of engaging people from all walks of life and her work with George has touched the lives of thousands of people around the world. Humble to last, we are all so proud of Indi and her achievements.”

Indi received a standing ovation at the awards ceremony and it defiantly brought a tear to the eyes of the present members of the George team.

Executive Managing Director at George, Andrew Moore said “I had one of the proudest moments of my career at George when Indi won these three awards.”

When we caught up with Indi she wanted to say “a big thank you to everyone at Asda, George and Walmart. I am truly honoured and overwhelmed by all the support and messages I have been receiving. I have seen George grow as a brand and now it’s leading the way to international heights which I am so proud to be part of.
Behind every success there is a winning team which is the George Quality and Ethical team led by Paul Wright who is the inspirational leader behind this success. I would also like to thank the wider team I engage with within George sourcing, George Bangladesh team, the Walmart ES team and the Asda press team whom I work very closely with to help deliver an ethical supply chain. Without this support I would not be where I am today.
And finally a big thank you to everyone at George for making this so special and in particular Andrew Moore and Fiona Lambert for endorsing Ethical trade within George”.

Indi will now go on to attend the Walmart Shareholders event in Bentonville later this year where she will be representing the UK for Walmart Integrity and Action. We can all feel very proud of Indi’s incredible achievement.

The latest George Be Seen In range launched today. The collection is inspired by two of the main print trends coming off the Spring Summer catwalks – decorative scarf and geometric. This range mixes opulent and highly decorative scarf prints with clean, bold graphic lines.

The new take on this 90’s look will be one of the key trends this season and George have made it possible at great prices.

Check it out for yourself on George.com.

At Asda we pride ourselves on doing the right thing for our customers and always being Happy to Help – and our George team was delighted when we were named the number one Happy to Help business unit for 2011.

This is a fantastic result and everyone in the team feels extremely proud for helping to contribute to this achievement. It’s the first year that George has secured the top spot – having had close competition from our colleagues working on the customer service desks and across the Asda car parks.

A huge well done to the following stores who achieved 100% on Happy to Help last year: Wigan, Gateshead, Ashington, Sheffield Chaucer Road, Harrogate, Stafford and Leyton. Our challenge for 2012 is to hold on to the top spot!

Thanks to our George colleagues for all your hard work – send us some pictures to show us how you and your teams have been celebrating the results in store.

We’re launching a fantastic sales and service initiative across our George departments this Christmas which will help our colleagues develop active selling skills, address our customers’ queries more readily and help to drive sales.

Meet our Go-Getter for gifts – colleagues who will be on-hand to help customers find the items they’re looking for in store, making shopping for Christmas gifts even easier. They can be identified by their glamorous gold gilets – modelled here by our managing director Andrew Moore.

And if we don’t have what our customer is looking for – our Go-Getters will hand out a Smiley voucher directing our customers to George.com which entitles them to a one-time 10% discount on their online shop.

We want you to send in your pictures of your store’s Go-Getters wearing their signature gold gilets – share your photos by uploading them to the Your Stories section and tell us how they’ve helped customers in your store this festive season.

A number of colleagues from George House are doing their bit for Movember by donating their top lip to charity to raise awareness and funds for men’s health – specifically prostate and testicular cancer.

Executive managing director Andrew Moore has embraced the challenge himself so that George can lead with its best lip forward – alongside several courageous colleagues around the building.

George House has an ambitious target of £1,000 so let’s show colleagues our support by donating anything you can – you can make your contribution online at our JustGiving page.

Show us how you’re supporting Movember by uploading your pictures of your very own ‘Mo’ to your store page.

Keep our eyes peeled for our Head of Menswear Design Matt McCoombe on tonight’s episode of James May’s Man Lab on BBC Two.

The episode was filmed during Graduate Fashion Week earlier this year when James May challenged fashion students to reinvent the boiler suit into something practical that could also be worn outside work.

Matt was on the panel who were judging the outfits – including one designed and modelled by James May himself. Matt says: “I have to say that the ranges were really innovative, quite exciting.”

Watch a preview of James May and his producer Will taking to the catwalk in their boiler suits on the BBC Two website – and don’t forget to catch the show at 8pm.

Thank you to our George House Hotline team – Hannah, Claire, Clare, Emily and Mandy – for their fantastic performance over the last few months.

The Hotline is the direct link from store to the George home office – any issues or queries that happen in store are reported by store colleagues to the Hotline and then escalated to the relevant team. Queries that come through vary from prices, product location, availability, marketing and merchandising and the aim is to respond to these queries within 24 hours. Most are resolved on the call there and then.

Over the past few months the Hotline has been working tirelessly to make sure they are the number one in the business and are consistently achieving their service level targets. The Hotline are really setting the trend, achieving 99% service levels and often hitting 100%!

Hannah has worked on the Hotline for over 4 years and said: “We are a really small team and I think I can speak on behalf of all of us that it’s a great feeling knowing that you have delivered a fantastic service to our store colleagues. It’s all about turning those queries into sales.”

Nick Gerrard, Head of George Communications, said: “This standard is industry leading and the Hotline team have showed a great attitude in raising the bar, I am personally very proud of what they have achieved and want to thank them all for their hard work!”

We’ve listened to what customers told us about how they want to shop George online and we’re proud to reveal our brand new George website.

What’s new?

Our site has a new look and feel – it’s more fashion focused and we’ve made it easier for customers to shop online. We’ve introduced a “quick buy” option to allow customers to quickly add items to your basket and continue shopping. There’s also a stock checker on each of the items to let customers know when stock is running low – so they don’t miss out on the products they want.

You can now get even closer to the products – with better images and closer zoom so you can better see what you’ll be buying – and our new trends page provides fashion ideas and behind the scenes videos.

We’re hoping to attract the next generation of customers to shop with us online – and we need your feedback! Let us know what you think of the new site by leaving a comment below and help us make George.com an even better online experience for our customers.

The RSPCA Good Business Awards recognise fashion retailers who consider animal welfare in the buying of raw materials and providing their customers with information about where their clothes are coming from.

At George we’re committed to animal welfare in all our products that involve animal products such as wool and leather and are delighted to have won the coveted Large Company award this year.

Since 2005 these awards have been recognised as the very best in the UK business. We won the Large Company award in 2009, were highly commended in 2010 and are now back in the top spot for our work on traceability.

Our footwear technologist Adrian Campbell says: “We are absolutely delighted to have received this award as we believe we have a responsibility to work with the RSPCA and help raise standards across the industry.”

“George is committed to doing the right thing and animal welfare is something we take extremely seriously. Our customers trust us to work to the highest standards without compromise, even in these tough economic conditions, and we know that any recognition from the RSPCA for our hard work means as much to them as it does to us.”

A big congratulations to everyone in the team – thank you for all your hard work.

Our colleagues have been hard at work over the past month raising money for our Tickled Pink campaign and here at George we’ve brought out an exclusive range of Tickled Pink products to help raise more funds and awareness for the cause.

These limited edition George dresses have been specially designed by celebrities Gaby Roslin, Danielle Lineker, Chloe Madeley and Andrea McLean and are a fantastic way to further support the campaign that all of you have got behind so enthusiastically.

We’ve also got a great range of Tickled Pink t-shirts, wellies, socks and pyjamas – and for each Tickled Pink product sold we’ll be making a donation to Breast Cancer Care and Breast Cancer Campaign.

Find out more about the range on our George Style Blog – or visit George.com to buy your very own Tickled Pink items.

Congratulations to George colleague Keren Long on being named Innovator of the Year at the Everywoman in Retail Awards for her pioneering work as Bangladesh Sourcing General Manager.

Keren’s award recognises the huge contribution she’s made in establishing George at Asda’s sourcing operation in Bangladesh. She moved to Bangladesh in 2010 to work as part of the team setting up a sourcing office for George.

By working directly alongside the factories the George team in Bangladesh have helped raise productivity and improve efficiency at the same time as increasing the emphasis on the welfare of the people who work there. Keren is also heavily involved in community work in Bangladesh, where George helped set up the Jamgara HOPE school in Ashula.

She says: “I’m really honoured to have won this award, and to be part of such an amazing team. Working at George has taken me on a journey – one that I certainly couldn’t have imagined when I started out. Our culture encourages a drive and a vision, and instils in all of us an incredible belief and motivation to go beyond the tried and tested and to break new ground.”

George Executive Managing Director Andrew Moore says: “A series of ground-breaking achievements and an innovative approach to business, Keren completely embodies Asda’s culture and the opportunity our colleagues have to make a real difference to our business. Her commitment to making our operations as efficient as possible has helped to ensure the quality of our products, whilst her passion for working in local communities has helped improve the lives of hundreds of people in Bangladesh.”

George has always been renowned for our three pillars of quality, style and value, and this year, we’re being recognised for all three in our nominations for several national awards. This week alone, George has been announced as a finalist in the Sun’s fabulous Magazine High Street Fashion Awards, Company High Street Fashion Awards and the Practical Parenting Awards.

Our colleagues are a big part of what we do and we’d like to thank you for your help in getting us this far.

Voting for the awards is now open – tell your family and friends!

These are the categories we’ve been shortlisted for, and the links to vote:

Company Magazine High Street Fashion Awards

Best place to spend £50
Best Fashion Retailer

The Sun’s Fabulous Magazine High Street Awards

Fabulous for under £30
Fabulous for catwalk copies
Fabulous Magazine awards

Practical Parenting Awards

Baby
Toddler
Maternity

A few weeks ago, head of our George quality and ethics team Paul Wright visited some of the factories we source from in Bangladesh with Jen Creevy, a representative from Retail Week.

Paul blogs about the visit in his recent Aisle Spy Blog post, saying: “We wanted to share with her all of the great work we have been doing behind the scenes to help workers abroad and show how proud we are that we can say that our customers can shop with a clear conscience.

“We showed Jen how we have implemented a programme called Lean manufacturing in four factories. The Lean trial has increased productivity, workers’ wages and improved quality and we wanted to share the news that because that was so successful we are rolling Lean out to 17 more factories that account for $150m in exports to George and will impact thousands of workers within our supply chain. If you want to read Jen’s report in Retail Week, here’s the link.

“Two years ago, we also funded a new school in Ashulia, just outside Dhaka. The school has 182 pupils and if you want to see how well behaved they were when we visited then take a look at the video above.”

Colleagues can easily donate to Hope School by using our Give as You Earn scheme. These forms can be collected from reception at Asda House or George House, or downloaded here. Any money you donate will go a long way towards helping Hope School and many of our other beneficiaries help underprivileged people across the globe.

To find out which charities the Give As You Earn scheme supports click here.