Wholesale Trust is an Investment - Ancient Wisdom - Giftware and Aromatherapy Supplier

Greetings from AW HQ Sheffield

I trust you are well..

It's really getting busy, and the challenge of working out of limited space is beginning to stretch AW people to the limits.

Last week I was telling you about our 3X plan and the possible move to a big new warehouse and showed you the time-lapse video of the old one being pulled down, you can read about it here.

Last week I was telling you about the complex deal to acquire a lease on this beautiful big warehouse that will take AW and our service to you to the next level. I was hoping to tell you today the deal has been done, but alas we keep hitting stumbling blocks. Lawyers, bankers, insurance and agents all complicating things.. In the old days, not that long ago deals were deals, find a rapport, look the guy in the eye, strike a bargain, shake hands and get on with it. With Parkwood Business Park, our home now (what remains) I met Keith the owner/property developer, a canny but straight talking Yorkshire guy and we kinda clicked. He flies helicopters for fun and he scared me witless by taking me for a spin and buzzing over nearby Chatsworth House. We did a substantial deal on a handshake, and we didn't bother with lawyers.. much to the horror of our bankers and accountants.

AW has always been built on a foundation of trust and personal relationships. In twenty years we have never used a letter of credit when importing containers of products from India, or Indonesia or China. Deals done on an exchange of emails to clarify points, I might snap a picture of my notes made during negotiations, then we shake hands and give a PO and immediately a decent deposit. Trust. But not without a bit of due diligence, it is important to know the people you are dealing with are decent people and we always check our suppliers are ethical, good to staff and compliant with local laws etc. The most important thing is that relationship.

Meet the AW agents:

Mr Chatterjee - our man in India. And one of the kindest humans on earth, he spends his spare time feeding needy people and helps with the children's home we support.

Coco - our girl in China. And one of the hardest working people you will meet, endless energy and enthusiasm. She is also my wife :-)

Ringo - our man in Indonesia. And one of the humblest and gentlest guys alive. But resourceful and totally in control.

We trust our agents a lot, with lots of money, millions of pounds. They have to work in the interest of AW, but of course they have endless conflicts of interest and many potential areas for corruption. For example a supplier could offer kickbacks for extracting a higher price, there are lots of ways to undermine the agent relationship. In the past we have had one or two bad relationships where (a well paid agent or manager) has abused the trust invested in them. What happened was that the relationship became strained, broke down, and was in the end no fun for anyone. You know who you are.. Some people are naturally prone to take advantage of trust, psychologists think it could be as much as 20% of people - so many business people don't risk investing in trust. Instead they become control freaks, have endless complex contracts etc. I learned however that blind trust is not good, build in a little accountability and some KPI (targets), don't naively trust.. but don't get obsessive.

Good people respond well to trust. The system works well and business can grow, everyone has fun, everyone benefits.

When you trust in people - sometimes for years - and they just take advantage of you again and again.. it blinking hurts.. but trust is risky and the way I see it that hurt you feel is the price you pay for having other great relationships.

So we didn't get the keys to our new warehouse yet.. because all those bankers, agents, lawyers, insurance bods are all there to implement systems that control risk, negating the need to trust. And that takes eons.. slows everything down.

At the end of the day, someone has to hand over the keys to a 8 million pound asset. So you can't blame them for being obsessively careful.

I wish they would just trust us on a handshake (or elbow nudge) because we have five containers stacked up at the port, hundreds of pallets in storage and people working themselves into a frenzy trying to cope..

The big news is that Bath Bombs are coming back on-line.. See below.. lots of new lines, back in stock.

We are a long way behind with orders, working this weekend to catch up.. I will go and help myself.

Thank you for trusting us with your orders.. we appreciate your trust. And we are doing our level best to repay it.

Take care..

More news next week.

David