Contact us EIZO Limited, 1 Queens Square, Ascot Business Park, Lyndhurst Road, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 9FE

Hi, I’m Karen Scrutton – Stock and Logistics Controller at EIZO UK. I joined back in March 2000 when we were called PDS (Professional Display System). Prior to EIZO I worked in retail for 11 and half years, working in a record store (yes, records) for a company called Our Price Music. I loved it! But at the ripe old age of 33, I decided I was too old to manage a record store.

So, what to do…??

I enrolled in an evening class at Woking College to learn how to use a computer, the best £60 I’ve ever spent. It got me my first office job and after about 18 months, having just moved into my new house, I decided that I wanted to add a conservatory.

I needed more money – so I started to look for a new job. I was sent by a recruitment agency for an interview for an Order Entry position. Other than that, I knew nothing about the company I was interviewing for and had never heard of EIZO, but I’m glad to say I got the job…

When I started the only product we sold was the FlexScan range – big beasts the size of the old CRT or tube TV’s that used to take up a corner of your living room or desk.

As I mentioned I started as an Order Entry person – processing orders that came through the fax machine!! Remember them?

After about 3 years the Logistic & Material Control position became available, so I applied and got the role. Instead of shipping our monitors out, I was now ordering and booking them into stock amongst other things – I enjoyed it.

There are many reasons why I have stayed so long. People might think it can get a bit samey working at the same company for so many years, but it really isn’t and has been an exciting journey.

I’ve taken part in a 3-legged race for charity around Soho London, watched the 09.11 attacks happen on a portable TV in the Woking office, seen the Olympic torch run past our Bracknell office in 2012, been given an amazing opportunity to visit Japan in 2015, I’ve been to Germany twice and won a trip to Mauritius. Technology has changed over the years and I have seen our product range grow. I’ve seen and been part of a company that has gone from strength to strength, and I am happy to have been a part of that.

I have seen many colleagues have children who I have then seen grow into young adults and lost some dear colleagues along the way.

But one of the main reasons for staying are the people and the culture within the business that makes EIZO a lovely place to work.

As part of my role, I have seen the company become so much more aware of what we do and the impact we can have on the environment and the little steps we can take to make a difference. For example, we used to often fly products in from Japan, but in order to reduce our carbon footprint we are now bringing everything in by sea.

Shipment via sea has a much smaller carbon footprint but it does present so many challenges in terms of stock management as we must be incredibly accurate in our forecasting, but we all work together to try and make that happen.

It has also been great to see the work Japan have done to make our packaging more sustainable and recyclable, and also the steps they have taken to reduce the size of the packaging - meaning we can fit more monitors in a container which reduces the amount of wasted space in every container and further reducing the carbon footprint of every monitor that makes it to the UK.

Taking recycling a step forward and closer to home. I’m also the person charged with making the office more environmentally friendly by looking at what we can do better to recycle in-house. Which involves trying to make sure employees recycle correctly when going about their day in the office.

This can be from something as simple as correct recycling bins and signage, to little verses that encourage people, to reviewing what cleaning products we use and how we can choose more environmentally friendly products.

One sheet is plenty, don't make the towel dispenser empty. Cheers Planet Earth:)

We also built a Bug Hotel for a local school using recycled pallets, plant pots, bricks, and other materials people brought in from home. It’s only something small but it’s important to support our local community and help them learn about the environment too.

It may not seem like much but being able to play my part in all the amazing things EIZO is doing and has done, is incredibly rewarding and the reason why I am still here 23 years after I started.