| 1980 | - On April 1st 1980, The Grass Roots Partnership Ltd. is formed by David Evans and Jim White who set up office in an old Rothschild building at 9 High Street, Tring.
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| 1981 | - Our first Mystery Shopping survey report is published revealing findings of over 1,000 visits to car dealers and advising on ways to improve customer service
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| 1986 | - The Grass Roots Partnership acquires Bonusplan (owners of Bonusbond Gift Vouchers) and Promotions House Group and is renamed as The Grass Roots Group PLC
- The Group becomes an affiliate of the WPP Group
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| 1987 | - Grass Roots sells Pendley Manor, its conference and training centre in preparation for moving into Pennyroyal Court
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| 1988 | - Grass Roots moves into Pennyroyal Court - a converted stable block
- Our in-house Creative Studio is formed
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| 1992 | - Grass Roots is accredited with the British Standards Institute BS EN ISO 9001:1994
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| 1993 | - As a result of a tripartite agreement between Grass Roots, Tring Arts Trust and Dacorum Borough Council, the Pendley Court Theatre re-opens. Grass Roots continues to support the theatre today
- Our BS ISO accreditation is upgraded to ISO 9001:2000
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| 1997 | - Grass Roots Ireland is incorporated.
- Disabled mystery shopping is added to our portfolio of services.
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| 1998 | - The first Options reward catalogue containing over 700 gifts is published.
- Our research report entitled 'The Challenge of Disability' is released.
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| 2000 | - A joint initiative by the IDeA and Grass Roots is launched - a distance learning programme to improve knowledge of the needs of Britain's disabled people
- Employees learn and are tested on diversity awareness training, as part of their induction - a process that continues today
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| 2001 | - Grass Roots UK is incorporated with Rik Burrage as the Managing Director
- Grass Roots celebrates its 21st birthday - as part of the celebrations employees raise over £50K for the KidsOut UK charity
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| 2002 | - Grass Roots Spain is set up
- Care-4, our premier childcare voucher system, is unveiled featuring an electronic voucher for working parents to pay approved carers efficiently and cost-effectively
- Our first order on Options25 was processed (Sainsburys' vouchers)
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| 2003 | - GRG Public Resources (incl. Recovery Management Services Ltd.) and Projectlink are acquired by the Group. GRGOne Fee, a promotional risk management company is set up
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| 2004 | - The Group's turnover exceeds £100 Million for the first time
- Grass Roots France opens in Paris
- The launch of CareAware - childcare learning programme - and bike4work
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| 2005 | - Grass Roots America (formerly BitTime), Shopcontrol Deutschland GmbH and Parallel Promotions are acquired by the Group
- The launch of grgCard - the first worldwide reward card
- Grass Roots UK wins four Golden awards at the ITMA (Incentive Travel & Meetings Awards) for its work with Coca Cola, Mirror Group Newspapers and O2
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| 2006 | - BDR is acquired to strengthen our offering in digital marketing & loyalty and Maritz Europa to enhance our events portfolio
- Grass Roots takes a major shareholding in Spectrum Events AG
- The launch of Global Options - our worldwide online rewards platform
- Grass Roots commences the Tring School community project
- 12 award wins for the UK at the ITMA and two at the Motivation awards
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| 2007 | - The Asia Pacific regional office opens in Singapore
- Delegate Management Services Ltd. (DMS) and MMM Ltd. are acquired by the Group
- The Group's Research & Development Centre opens in Wendover, Bucks.
- Grass Roots UK is included in the Sunday Times Best Companies to work for listing
- Three year sponsorship deals are agreed with Tring Rugby Union Football Club and Tring Park Cricket Club
- Grass Roots UK's carbon footprint is measured for the first time
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| 2008 | - Within the Asia Pacific region, offices in India, China and Australia are opened
- Venue sourcing specialist company, HBI, is acquired by the Group
- Andy Lister is appointed as UK Managing Director
- Grass Roots rises to 53rd in the Sunday Times Best Companies to work for list
- David Evans, Chairman, is awarded an MBE by The Queen
- Our first Corporate Responsibility report is published and the second measure of the UK's carbon footprint reveals it has fallen by 25% per full time employee to 3.57 tonnes
- CLIC Sargent is appointed as the corporate charity
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| 2009 | - Grass Roots UK appears in the Sunday Times list of top 100 companies to work for, for the third year in succession
- The UK Learning Services team wins Sales Training Programme of the Year at the National Sales awards for its work with GAME Stores Group
- The number of orders being processed via Options25 reached the one million mark
- Over 67,000 of our client's employees undertook our diversity and disability awareness distance learning programmes
- The amount of money raised by Grass Roots employees since appointing CLIC Sargent as our nominated charity (Sept. 08) surpasses £12,000
- The third measure of Grass Roots UK's carbon footprint shows it has fallen to 2.94 tonnes per full time employee
- From our Event businesses, we ran 4,200 meetings and events that touched 170,000 delegates. 6,900 airline tickets were issued and 6,200 delegates managed on charters
- £42M was collected from fee-paying events, the best collection rate in the industry
- The number of websites we commercially host for clients nudges 300 with over 25 million web hits per month
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| 2010 | - CLIC Sargent is presented with a cheque from Grass Roots to the value of £12,176.78 as a result of a series of fundraising activities carried out by employees in 2009
- The UK company is ranked No. 35 in the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies to Work For - Giving Something Back being our strongest category
- Cyclescheme, a Bath based business that specialises in the administration of tax efficient cycle to work schemes, becomes part of the Grass Roots Group and Andy Lister and Paul Bartlett join the Cyclescheme board
- Grass Roots celebrates its 30th anniversary with a spectacular open air music concert staged in Tring. Over 3,000 employees, clients and local residents enjoyed the event that raised more than £70,000 for local schools and sports facilities.
- Accreditation in ISO 27001, the industry standard in Information Security Management, was achieved by Grass Roots UK. This internationally renowned standard confirms our storage and transfer of information according to best practices which ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability
- Our Event businesses manage over £200M of client meetings and events spend p.a., and over the last five years have achieved an average saving for clients of more than 30%
- The fourth edition of our Meetings Industry Report is launched - offering independent research, industry insights and data analysis, case studies and article contributions from 20+ clients
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| 2011 | - Nigel Cover takes over as President of the MSPA Europe, the Mystery Shopping Providers Association for Europe
- We held our first Employee Engagement forum in London attended by senior managers from top UK businesses
- Kidscape was chosen as our corporate charity for the next two years. In the first month, over £4,000 was raised with an apprentice-style challenge
- Eight Grass Roots employees achieved success in the Institute of Promotional Marketing Diploma examinations
- The second 'Spirit of Tring' event was held with just under 5,000 people enjoying the concerts over the two nights
- Dave Sweeney, Senior Designer in the Creative Studio, was presented with the 'One to Watch' award at the IPM awards
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