It wouldn’t be a proper summer if someone didn’t ring up with a moan about a chiller not coping. Ajay Parekh, who runs a Londis in Nottingham, filled the bill. His Lucozade-branded chillers packed up last year and were replaced, but at the end of this July were not performing properly.

I contacted GlaxoSmithKline and must commend the company on its receptionist. She was the most helpful switchboard operator I’ve ever come across. She reminded me that GSK no longer owns Lucozade, brought me up to date on the brand’s journey, and directed me to Lucozade-Ribena Suntory (LRS) with contact details. And I have to say, Lucozade and Ribena seem to be in very good hands.

The response was close to immediate (despite, or maybe because of, going through an outside PR agency) and they provided me with the history of Ajay’s chillers, as follows: “LRS is responsible for the maintenance of all Lucozade-branded chillers and when work on the chiller that Mr Parekh had in his store didn’t improve its performance, the decision was made to exchange it. Unfortunately, at the time, we didn’t have available stock of the same sized chiller, so Mr Parekh was offered two alternative sizes; one larger and one smaller. However, Mr Parekh raised that these alternative sizes were not suitable for his shop fittings. To address this, we now have a chiller of the appropriate size and have arranged delivery for 1 August. We’re happy that we have a solution for Mr Parekh so he can continue to sell perfectly chilled drinks throughout the summer.”

I hardly ever have a chance to report on such a quick response (three working days!) and such a good outcome when it comes to broken chillers in mid summer.