Balance & Harmony
Fri Jul 12 2019 23:40:00 GMT+0800 (Malaysia Time)
Greetings from Spain
I hope you are enjoying the summer, long nights, Wimbledon and drinking beer outdoors in a country pubs. It's almost mid July and I have seen the first evidence of customers ordering for (alert the "C" word is coming)... Christmas. Woops sorry I said it.. Well it's only two more weeks and it's August bank holiday weekend, and then the focus seriously turns to the upcoming festive season. In the gift trade you really are part of the circle of life. You need to be planning ahead.
This week I have been planning our main sourcing season, it's imperative we find and develop the next set of amazing products to delight your customers with. Tomas (marketing and development wizard) and I will be spending time in India, Indonesia and Nepal - oh and a quick trip to Morocco where. Later we will go to China, where it's always possible to make things happen.
Last week I was telling you about the three-fold harmony ceremony at our brand new warehouse in Indonesia, you can read about it here..
Since the ceremony at our new AW warehouse in Jackfruit Village, Ringo (our man in Indonesia) has been working hard. Not only have we shipped all the holding stock and packaging materials from our old warehouse, but loaded and shipped a 40ft container to UK, and by the time you read this probably another one to our Eastern Europe warehouse in Slovakia. He likes to send me pictures on a container day, starting before dawn with an empty container being delivered to our (new) loading bay, and ending after sunset with the container loaded, packing list made and the guy who comes to the necessary fumigation.
Then the driver returns hooks up the container and trundles off to the port, a bit like your DPD parcel the container will go from depot to depot, in this case to Surabaya port, Java, then to Singapore, where it will transfer to a container ship that brings it to Europe.
Ringo, early morning getting ready to load. Carefully using every square inch. Almost full and last picture see the fumigation tank. Next time we see this container will be in Sheffield in about six weeks.
So last week we learned a little about three-fold harmony.. and in the giftware business Balance and Harmony are important. This is why we work hard to bring you stock from India, Indonesia and Nepal as well as China. Of course, China is the easiest place to work in, all the infrastructure is there, big factories (you can scale up easy) and most giftware companies buy the bulk of items in China. We also buy in China and have a warehouse in Yiwu, but try to focus on smaller family businesses and try to avoid plastic tat and mass market stuff.
Last weekend Coco and I went to the city of Granada, we had tickets for the Alhambra - a truly Ancient Wisdom location. And of course, we made a full tour of the gift shops (of which there are many), being in the gift trade you recognise where stuff comes from. That's from India, that's from Bali, that's Chinese. The best shops, the busiest shops have a Balance and Harmony.. something local, in Granda - Indian products look good, plus lots from Indonesia and we even spotted our Nepal hemp bags on sale. The shops with all China stock lacked a sense of authenticity, although there are good things just a bit of that can really destroy a shops zen and harmony. We loved the shops in the South Area.. lots of shops with Leather Notebooks (from India).
Granada gift shops..
This is why (blowing-own-trumpet-moment) at AW we spend more time than your average gift wholesaler sourcing the harder to get items, making sure it is ethically traded and making sure the prices are right.
What's in Ringo's latest container.. mostly Molten Glass Bowls some recycled wood furniture, coconut dragons (and old favorite) now specially boxed to prevent breakages and more..
Wish you a weekend of Balance & Harmony :)
More news next week..
Take care
Share :