Seasons Greetings from Spain..
I hope you are enjoying the festive period and you have time to enjoy the company of your family and friends.
Last week I was telling you about our Pizza Party traditions on the last day of work at AW in the UK.. if you missed it you can catch up here.
I had the pleasure of spending Christmas day with my Brother's wife's family who are from Zimbabwe and extended family from all over Africa. Well, the food was awesome: traditional goat stew for Christmas lunch, but the meeting with the extended family was delightful.. Nurses, a lawyer, university administrators and even a maths teacher. I learned a lot about emerging Africa, the good and the bad.. We already do a bit of business (gemstones) from Mozambique (next to Zimbabwe) but I'm thinking of drawing on family connections to explore more opportunities.
I took the early morning Ryanair flight from Manchester to Malaga and arrived here on Wednesday. Tomas and his family are here, so it's New Year in Spain.
It's the last Friday before 2024, so I thought I'd make a brief round-up of the year at AW..
Well it's been another epic year for AW with lots of fun and lots of stuff happening.. The most important thing for our customers is the wealth of new fast selling products.
Notable events and new products at AW included the following:
January - Completing the move to the new AW-Aromatics.com factory in Sheffield, housed in the rebuilt burnt down AW warehouse. New products have been coming every month since.
February - This is when we bought the Beach Bar in Bali (almost by accident) read about it here.
March - The Epic India/Nepal trip with Tomas, Bryant and Myself.. the first for Bryant and our first since before covid. A big success.. resulting in 463 new products including beautiful Singing Bowls. Now we have the best range in the UK. Also simply the best range of Indian Incense.
April - The launch of our new baby.. AW-Advantage.com. A digital marketing agency that can give your website super powers. Established in that abandoned beach bar in Bali.
May - Working with Coco in China to produce many new products including new Chakra Gemstone Candles.. a massive success.
June - In Bali, the development of our Popup Shop range of Shopfitting. This is going to be awesome - but only just arriving in
Europe - it's not all here yet. But it's just what you need to open a popup shop with ease. Stay tuned.
July - New managers appointed at AW-Aromatic.com.. James and Bryant take the helm and make rapid changes and improvements. Launched the Whipped Cream Soap range.. instantly sold out.. and one of the best selling products this year from the AW Aromatic team.
August - I return to India to tie up some loose ends. And finally get to see Mr Chatterjee's new factory. Details here. Lots of new products developed - which are now on the way to Europe. From AW-Gifts.eu in Slovakia we launched the Croatia website. AW is now reaching every corner of the EU and GB.
September - Back in China - Coco, the team (and me).. work on the amazingly detailed and enchanting: Hop Hare Gemstone Flowers Candles. Honestly, I think it is our greatest design achievement. Ok maybe I'm a bit biased :) - but so far seems to be our fastest selling candle in the history of AW..
October - But meanwhile Tomas was in Bali making more new products happen and making me feel jealous - because that's my job. haha.
November - Much of October and November I was grateful to spend with Coco in Spain.. working on our new terrace at home and with Toni at and the amazing team in Malaga AW-Artisan.eu who this month celebrate their 4th anniversary, I can hardly believe how far they have come in just four years. So a good excuse for a party.
December - One Hectic Month - Spain UK, Slovakia back to UK and now in Spain.. another year over and a new one to begin.. We received Christmas greetings from the Children's home in India we support with the help of Mr Chatterjee and the wonderful Mr Kundo. It came a little late for the UK Christmas newsletter but here it is better late than never. Enjoy.
Seasons greeting from India. Jingle Bells
Hopefully, I don't bore you banging on about how proud I am of the AW teams I work with, but I am! This year has been super fruitful with so many exciting new products.
We (from all parts of AW) thank you for your support and patronage over this year, and hopefully, you will stay with us as we reveal 2024's crop of new products. I'm excited and looking forward to working with you, our amazing customers and all the teams, artisans and agents at AW..
Take care, have a great New Year celebration.
See you in 2024.
Wishing you all the very best for the coming year.