Greetings from Spain
Hope you are well, it's just a week on from Valentines day... but seems longer.
Last week I was telling you about the Year of the Ox, you can read it here and why I think everything is changing.. more on this below.
I have been working with our man Toni who manages AW Artisan in Spain. Lots and lots of projects coming to fruition. The office there is buzzing and we are taking on more staff to cope with the extra business that has shifted from the UK to Spain.
One thing we did was make a nice rock and garden in front of the warehouse, it's not really our land but no-one seemed to care for it which seemed a shame. So my friend Clive (who can do anything handy) came and made it happen.. he tanked it with a liner and filled the space with three tons of nice white stones. Then Toni, Mario and I went to the local garden centre and bought lots of aloe vera plants.. I have them in my garden and I know they grow quickly and don't need much looking after.
It's only a little thing, but it is improving the situation. and this makes me feel better.
Like Coco says if you can just make something a little better no matter how little, every day, every week.. then the world gets better. And the good news is - the next door neighbors already started something similar.
In the UK a much more substantial investment is taking place. If you are a regular reader you will know we moved to Affinity Park late last year. A huge 100,000 sq ft complex. And we just invested in 6000 racking locations.
Some would say we are mad.. first of all even moving to a warehouse this big right on top of brexit ... and then investing in this much capacity. On top of this we have been expanding and kitting out our factory at the Parkwood site. Are we mad?
Rodrigo likes to make time lapse videos and he made this..
Not so little.. but we made it better.
The world is changing.. and we might be mad,making big investments right now, but I feel that however it changes we need to be ready and agile and think positively.
In June 2016, after the referendum. I really had gut feeling this was a huge mistake, and from that very week we started making plans for EU warehouses. Thank goodness we did, Brexit is a huge disaster - it's not project fear, it's reality. 70% of our EU customers have fled.. but at least they have somewhere to go for AW stock. And while we have a way to go before we recover all that lost trade - we have a plan and so far it is working.
We continue to try to operate our Brexit trade bridge, and it's kind of working. But I'm not convinced we are giving our EU customers the best service possible. We will review the system at the end of March.
We really don't know what 2021 will bring.. but as I was thinking last week.. big wheels are turning. Things are going to change. We will see what unfolds.. I still feel that when the whole world prints money to solve problems then this macro event has to have consequences. Maybe we will enter a kind of Alice in Wonderland world..
Anyway, back to reality.. the next big thing is Mother's Day.. this year it is 22nd of March so only a few weeks away. We have been preparing some great deals and offers - see below.
It's unlikely that mother's will be taken for expensive lunches or taken away for a luxury break.. sadly.. but at least the gift trade can provide much needed pamper products to give Mum a bit of me time she deserves.
So get prepared for a bumper Mother's day.. especially via online trade and dropshipping. check out.. AW-Dropship.com
So wishing you a safe and peaceful weekend..
Make something little.. anything.. a little better..
