James, a retired RAF Flight Lieutenant, spent most of his life working on, or with, aircraft but he had never had the opportunity to fly in a Lancaster bomber during his lifetime. Following his death last October, his family felt that it would be a fitting farewell to help him to fulfil his life-long wish to travel in one of these famous aircraft and last month, with the help of Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, Jim took his final flight.
With the Lancaster being based at RAF Coningsby, the Smeeton Family looked to PACK & SEND – the specialist packing and shipping company that recently opened at 77 Queensway, Southampton – to ensure Jim’s ashes travelled safely to meet the plane.
Flight Lieutenant Smeeton was no stranger to aircraft of all sizes. As an engineer in the RAF, a technical translator for the UN International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and latterly a conference translator with the Ministry of Defence, he had travelled widely for work as well as for pleasure. He had lived in Canada for many years as well and would doubtless have been very pleased to know that his final flying dream had been completed.
PACK & SEND make a simple promise – ‘We send anything, anywhere!’ – and whilst they specialise in ensuring the safe delivery of valuable or fragile items few deliveries have been more important than getting Jim to his last flight.
PACK & SEND’s largest UK store yet opened in central Southampton last month and local demand for the breadth of secure packing and shipping options from both business and consumer customers is already proving strong. With a growing population in the City itself and the towns of Eastleigh, Romsey, Lymington, New Milton and Lyndhurst in the surrounding areas, PACK & SEND in Southampton is ideally placed to provide high quality packing, shipping and freight solutions to one of the UK’s largest ports.
All their stores provide a unique combination of highly secure packing and shipping solutions with overnight UK deliveries and next day to most European and US destinations. Every store has the option of over 30 freight shipping options via air, road and sea including door-to-door delivery across the globe.
Customers looking for excess baggage shipping, specialist packing and transportation and courier services in Southampton and the Solent Coast can now use PACK & SEND’s unique services for all their packing and shipping requirements from Southampton to the UK and over 220 countries worldwide as well. Business and personal customers will find the helpful and professional service that PACK & SEND provide a breath of fresh air in a traditionally complicated market. They can handle virtually anything, but are specialists in shipping large, fragile, awkward or valuable items where high quality packing is essential.
PACK & SEND Southampton is owned and operated by Mr Nick Jennings under the PACK & SEND franchise programme. Nick, already a successful local business owner looked at several sites in the City before opting for the high visibility and accessibility of Queensway. For customers wanting to call in, the store carries the distinctive PACK & SEND signage and is in a central location near to car parking.
Of course, as with all PACK & SEND stores in the UK and across the world, there is no need to come to the shop at all! PACK & SEND can collect your goods and parcels from any location and secure packing can be undertaken either on-site or at the local store. The Southampton store has already worked on shipments from Art and Antiques Dealers and Medical Specialists as well as many small businesses throughout the Hampshire area sending to destinations throughout the world. They are able to collect from locations across the county when required, so just call or e.mail your details and Nick and the team will be delighted to help.
The contact details for PACK & SEND Southampton are: 77 Queensway Southampton Hampshire SO14 3HJ Telephone: 02380 713 444 e.mail: [email protected]
PACK & SEND are planning up to 240 stores across the UK; many of which will be operated through a franchise license. Individuals interested in owning a PACK & SEND store can find more information about UK franchise opportunities here and anyone needing to ship items in the UK or to anywhere else in the world can request a quote online or call 02380 713 444.