Summer Shows Roundup
This year we exhibited at The Great Yorkshire Show and The Game Fair, our two staples of the year. We also had a pop up in Fairfax and Favor Stamford Store. We’d of course love to get out and do more but as a family with two young children and little family help we struggle to do more! In any case the business was setup to be able to leave corporate life and spend more time with our little ones so sometimes you have to assess what you are doing and consider each new opportunity carefully so you can stay true to your values. We are also growing hugely online so that still needs to be managed.
Setup (we are getting pretty quick at this now!)
A photo at The Yorkshire Show when the family all came to visit.
This year we brought our new collection of tweed and our new Land Rover knitwear alongside our other staples. We changed the stand up to accommodate this and had a lot of stock to prepare. Preparing for a show is practically a year round task. We ramp up in May and have three months of prepping stock. Ensuring all our stock is on hand is sometimes tricky and this year a delivery did not arrive in time so we will be launching another new product shortly for Christmas instead!
Here are some of the new products which sold so well:
The family chip in at shows and luckily we have many nephews and nieces looking for work over their university summers. This means the team back in the studio can remain to pack all your orders, which always ramp up over shows.
The two shows are very different, each with their own merits. The Yorkshire is round the corner from home so we get to go home and I do my other job of being a mummy (and sleep in a warm bed!). We set up early to avoid the chaos of set up day. The Game Fair is a big distance for us (we took 5 hours to get home this year!) but a fun trip away with no parental responsibilities which means after a long hard day we can enjoy the festivities that The Game Fair offers. it is great to exhibit at different ends of the country as we get to meet different countryside people.
The best bit of exhibiting is meeting all the lovely people. We chat, we get to know each other and learn about each other. We see people year after year as their family expands. We offer a chair to pregnant mums, those in need of a stop due to heatstroke or just tired legs. We have funny chats and often entertain little ones whilst parents shop. The stickers with our watercolours on are always a hit. We come away with fresh ideas too that help shape the collections.
Some of this year’s visitors
We meet gorgeous pups too at The Game Fair and I always come away wanting to get several more dogs.
As well as the visitors we get to know other business founders and traders. The camaraderie is such a wonderful feeling and everyone helps everyone out. We had good chats this year with Gus from Hownd Clothing who is just starting out, Marcus Fairfax-Fountaine (Fairfax and Favor) about US expansion (and babies since he has just had a beautiful baby girl), the Brandeccose team and Sarah at Spent Shells. It’s lovely to meet the same folk each year and across different shows and The Game Fair after party is always a hoot!
Every year we take away a learning. Our stand gets better (and more secure!). We have experienced shop lifting and some shall we say rather unsavoury behaviours which need addressing and this is always a horrid feeling, particularly as a small business. But everyone else is so supportive and wonderful, people buying for babies always seem to be in a great mood and it does bring our spirits back up! Our stand is small and intimate and we love this about it. We get wiser to these things every year and this year my gym-going nephew came with me as security 😆.
We get asked a lot if we have a shop in Stamford. We don’t but we are stocked in Marcia May there and of course we do most of our sales online.
We were asked a lot this year if we would do bigger sizes and this is something we will focus on going forward, warehouse permitting!
We also get asked if I make the clothing. I am not a seamstress and to be honest if I was making all the clothes we sell I’d have no time to run the business! We make the clothes at the source of the organic cotton - Turkey. Unfortunately the cost to produce in the UK is so expensive none of you would buy any of the clothes! We own the watercolour prints. Our designer has done such a wonderful job with these. Unfortunately over the years we have had copy cat brands. Our customers have noticed and brought this to our attention at shows. It is beyond belief really and it always surprises me why someone would not look to do something unique. Luckily though, most brands are great and we have amazing relationships with them. It is a business hurdle I never expected to be faced with.
As our show season comes to a close we are busy getting ready for Christmas. There really is no rest in this business! I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who visited us at the shows and to the organisers of these events who had taken on feedback from the previous years to make it better.
We look forward to the year ahead and planning next year!
