Come hail or snow the Express & Star will deliver

In recent months the Midlands has experienced some of the worst weather to blight the region for years but we have pulled out all the stops to ensure the paper always gets out to our readers.

Roads were blocked with snowdrifts and cars struggled to get up hills but our vans still made it through and the papers were on the shelves – in many cases earlier than they usually would be.

Print deadlines were brought forward to ensure the fleet of delivery vehicles made it out on to the region's roads in good time.

When heavy snow fell on January 18, we had already planned ahead the day before by making sure the papers went to print earlier than usual.

By the time the roads were becoming gridlocked, vans were already dropping off papers so readers could catch up on the latest weather updates that evening.

The Upper St Mary's newsagents in Upper St Mary's Road, Bearwood, has stocked the Express & Star for the last 25 years.

Owner Mrs Jasbir Singh, aged 57, said vans had always dropped off the papers every day despite the roads coming to a standstill with snow earlier this year.

She said: "We always get the papers delivered. I have never known a time when they do not come."

Mr Bukan Singh, owner of Ducklane Newsagents in Codsall, has worked in newsagents for 35 years and always stocked the E&S. He said: "The Express & Star has always been a popular newspaper because of its excellent evening edition. It is a very good local newspaper."

Newsagents across the region play a vital role in getting the Express & Star out to you, our readers.

Malcolm Crump has been running the award-winning Spar shop in Bridgnorth Road, Compton, Wolverhampton, together with his brother since 1997, having previously taken over their father's newsagents across the road in 1969.

They have been selling the Express & Star since they can remember, and Mr Crump, aged 58, believes it remains as much a cornerstone of the local community as ever. He said: "It's the only real source of local information. I wouldn't be without it for that very reason.

"These days we don't talk to our neighbours so without it we wouldn't know what's going on.

"My customers get really upset if they don't have it. If we were ever to miss a paper they would be up in arms. It's very important to them."

Mr Crump says his dedication to delivering the paper come rain or shine is matched by that of the Express & Star's own delivery drivers. "The snow was obviously very challenging," he said.

"They have done remarkably well. On three or four occasions they brought out the paper early, which was very sensible. It gave us the opportunity to send out our delivery kids early and it kept the paper available under the toughest conditions." At the shop, which was named Retailer of the Year in 2003, Mr Crump and his brother Gordon, aged 68, sell around 550 copies of the Express & Star every day – more than all of their the national paper sales combined.

Mr Crump, who lives in Long Lane, Shifnal, said: "We have been stocking the paper since we started. I was told we were its biggest independent retailer.

"It's an excellent paper. It's not Britain's number one for nothing.

"It's a very good piece of work. It's packed with information and it's much bigger than any regional paper I've ever seen."