Our Best Competition Yet!

It has been an absolute flyer of a start to the sporting season for the teams we are proud to support. We are still buzzing from James Shanes’ (smiley-racing) fantastic victory at the Ledbury grasstrack course, a brilliant display of skill and speed that really set the tone for the months ahead. You can follow his progress over at https://www.smiley-racing.com/ . The winning streak continued on the greens, too. A massive congratulations to the Blackmoor Golf Club Scratch team for their hard-fought 7-5 away win against Rowlands Castle. Securing a victory in the Beckford Bowl, a prestigious and notoriously tough 36-hole knockout competition across the South of England. Find out more about the club here: https://www.blackmoorgolf.co.uk/ . Seeing our sponsored partners hit the ground running like this is fantastic, and we can’t wait to see what the rest of the season holds for them!

Stellar Despatch..18 years in the making

The cat is out of the bag....or should that be the rabbit is out of the hutch! We have sent an email to our customers and potential customers, with the above picture, and asked them to count the number of Easter eggs there are in the van, reply to the email with that answer and, if correct be entered into the draw to win some Easter goodies. The winner will be "drawn from the hat" on Wednesday, 1st April and delivered to the lucky winner the Thursday before the Easter break. Just for fun, how many Easter eggs do you see? The winner will be announced shortly.

As of late February 2026, the state of roads in the South of England are experiencing significant disruptions due to a surge in potholes, caused by an exceptionally wet January and subsequent freeze-thaw conditions. Potholes are on the increase: Local councils, particularly in the South East and South West, have seen a dramatic rise in reports. For example, East Sussex reported over 3,700 pothole reports in January 2026, compared to 2,300 in January 2025. "Whack-a-Mole" Repairs: ("whack-a-mole repair" refers to fixing one issue immediately and causes another to pop up elsewhere, often due to complex, underlying, or recurring problems). Councils are struggling to keep up with the backlog of potholes appearing, often using temporary repairs in winter, with plans for permanent resurfacing in warmer weather. There appears to be a long-term strategy with road industry bodies urging councils to shift away from reactive pothole patching to preventative maintenance, such as surface dressing, which saw a 15% rise in 2025. Trials of new technology, such as thermal patching (which re-bonds existing asphalt using infrared heat), are planned for spring 2026 to speed up repairs. You can report potholes to the local council and/or the National Highways, via their websites. You can also warn other drivers through using apps such as Waze and Fix My Road, when safe to do so. You should be checking your tyres regularly if you are driving in a known pothole area, as these can seriously damage them. Leaving a larger gap between you and the vehicle in front, gives you a greater reaction time to safely avoid the worst of them. Even though these things are beyond our control, due to it being mainly nature driven, Stellar are still meeting all our goals on deliveries for customers.

Now that we are settling into 2026, we wanted to take a moment to share some highlights from the past year. At Stellar Despatch, we have always believed our success is measured by your satisfaction, and our 2025 customer feedback was truly heartening. Your Feedback Speaks Volumes We are incredibly proud to report that 96% of our customers scored us an 8/10 or above for service, with half of them giving us a perfect 10/10. When compared to our competitors, 80% of you said we were simply better, and not a single respondent felt we were falling behind. Hearing that our team is viewed as professional, friendly, and that our customers felt "part of the team" is exactly what we strive for every day. Making 2026 Your Easiest Year Yet While we are thrilled with these results, our focus for 2026 is making sure that working with us is the easiest part of your day. We’ve refined our processes to give you total flexibility in how you book your same day deliveries: For a quick chat: Our operations team is ready at the end of the phone on 0330 088 2845 (Option 1) For the specifics in writing: Simply email operations@stellardespatch.co.uk For digital speed: We now have dedicated Microsoft Forms for both Quick Quotes and Bookings, designed to capture every detail for a flawless booking. For our regular partners: Our bespoke online portal is now live, providing instant pricing and direct booking. If you haven’t been set up on our portal yet or would like to open a business account , email sales@stellardespatch.co.uk Thank you for your continued trust in Stellar Despatch. We listen, we solve, and we deliver - and we look forward to supporting you throughout 2026.

Stellar Despatch team step up to help others

The Stellar Despatch Food Bank Drive

Introducing two new colleagues, Leanne & Ian

And the winners are...