British Pounds
At OLPRO, we aim to ensure that people can use the precious time they have to make the most of the outdoors and live now. We’ve created several initiatives to help benefit our local and global community. These include:
2021:
Supporting local suppliers – We have a policy in place that ensure that we are purchasing from Independent companies and around buying locally when it comes to services and non-stock items. The policy states that 80% of non-stock should be local and 50% of all products from Independents. The company, as a whole, has an ambition to purchase more stock items within the UK.
Onside – Our Managing Director, Daniel Walton, is a Trustee for Onside in Worcester and takes up many opportunities to support the charity where possible. Onside is a charity working across Worcestershire and Herefordshire, established in 1993 stemming from a belief that everyone has the right to be a valued human being and to be treated in a just and fair way. Onside therefore provides a range of support and services to ensure fairness and equality for adults who may be vulnerable, disadvantaged or discriminated against. This includes mental and physical ill health, sensory impairment, learning disability, drug and alcohol misuse, older people and carers.
Supporting Make-A-Wish - OLPRO donated £257 to the Make-A-Wish UK foundation through the launch of our 2021 calendar. The A4 wall calendar features photography taken by OLPRO customers around the world, including sweeping views of the Swiss Alps, the beautiful scenery of German woodlands and the charming surroundings of British countryside gardens.
All photographs in the calendar were chosen as winners of a competition which received over 2,150 votes from members of the OLPRO community. The calendar was sold for £10 with all profits going to Make-A-Wish UK.
Plant An OLPRO Tree - At OLPRO we are also on a continued mission to become a carbon neutral company. To kickstart this we decided to launch a tree planting partnership with Ecologi, where we will plant a tree for every tent or awning purchased through our website. The tree-planting initiative that we have launched in partnership with UK-based, Ecologi is expected to lead to the planting of thousands of trees within the first year. We’ll be planting thousands of trees every year. Our funding has already started lowering the levels of CO2, 1.17 tonnes of CO2e to be precise, and it's fantastic to see that it has already directly been spent helping to repair water boreholes in Eritrea and on the installation of solar power in Maharashtra in India.
Discounts for key workers throughout Covid – We’ve launched 10% discount codes in cooperation with a variety of health sectors to show our appreciation for everything they have done throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. This includes exclusive discounts for Teachers, Charity Workers, Carers and Health Service discounts. OLPRO also launched an exclusive 25% bluelight discount for emergency workers.
2020:
2 Year Warranty - The first step we took in our mission, was to increase our 1 year warranty across all fabric products, to 2 years. We want our customers to be confident that when they buy with OLPRO, they are buying a high quality product that is built to last. As always, we’ve continued to use only the best fabrics that we can get hold of.
Eco-friendly Loan & Go - We decided to launch our Loan & Go service with the aim of avoiding plastic wastage. It is highly reliable and environmentally-friendly.
The ‘Loan & Go’ service allows customers to borrow any one of OLPRO’s tents or awnings, which can accommodate 1 to 8 people. The tents have been made available for borrowing in blocks of three days and all customers are given the option to buy their products at the end of their rental period if they wish.
NHS & Blue Light Discount - Due to the pandemic, 2020 has been an incredibly tough year for all of us to face, especially for the incredibly brave and hard-working NHS and blue light staff. It was therefore really important for us to make sure we were giving whatever we could back to these heroes. So, we decided to launch the largest discount we have ever had, purely for all NHS and blue light staff. The discount was 25%, and £65,000 worth of discounts were claimed overall.
£300 Giveaway - Another step we’ve taken to give back to our community of customers was to launch a monthly £300 giveaway, for our subscribers. It also gave us a great chance to update our mailing list, so that we could start
producing content that’s always personalised to our readers wants and needs. As a thanks to our customers, we’ve made it as simple as possible to be in with a chance of winning £300 OLPRO vouchers, so everyone that’s subscribed to the mailing list is instantly in with a chance of winning. The newsletter also gives tips and information on how to get the best from camping and camper vans and we'll also be teaming up with partners to offer even more.
Recycling Scheme - Alongside our environmentally-friendly creating of ‘Loan & Go’, we also decided to ramp up our recycling abilities – So we now recycle absolutely everything. All damaged or ‘second hand’ tents, and every piece of
fabric finds a home- whether it’s through being used in schools and colleges, or by being recycled into bags.
Sleeping bags for homeless – During the record floods of February 2020, OLPRO donated sleeping bags to the local district council to help provide a more comfortable night’s sleep to people that were left homeless from floods.
2019:
Worcestershire Disability Football – OLPRO has paid for the creation of football kits for the Worcestershire Disability Football team. The Worcestershire Disability Football club (also known as Worcestershire All Stars) is a football club which welcomes children, young people and young adults of all ages and abilities.
Drop the Councillor for Maggs Day Centre – OLPRO’s Managing Director, Daniel Walton, took part in a secret charity walk for Maggs Day Centre. Daniel was dropped in a random unknown location and had the challenge of walking back to Malvern in the following 48 hours. Maggs was founded in 1984 after a homeless man died after years of sleeping rough on the streets. His death promoted members of several local churches to come together and form an action group. Their work led to a day centre being created to help the homeless people of Worcester.