Finally good news
Fri Oct 01 2021 10:41:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Greetings from Spain
But next week (if nothing changes) I will be on the way to Indonesia - finally!
Last week I was telling you about all the things going on at AW - it's a hive of activity right now. If you missed it you can catch up here.
In the UK everything seems to be going pear-shaped.. Fuel running out, no turkey for Christmas, electric companies falling like flies, everyone is catching strange colds but things could be looking up..
Certainly inflation is creeping up - whatever the government & MSM seem to tell us.. shortages and price rises are the subject of every other email I open, and it's virtually impossible to place a reorder without a supplier requesting (or demanding) price rises.
Shipping costs remain high, and packaging costs are skyrocketing. In China they are having trouble generating enough electricity.. Coco tells me that our Candle Factory only gets electric four days a week and that most factories we work with have the same problem, so re-orders are now coming much slower.
All these problems, so much doom and gloom and yet..
... and yet.. somehow where there is a will there's a way. And come what may - life goes on. Love makes the world go round (when nothing else works) and giving a reasonably priced gift is an act of love.. I would argue that in these times a gift is an essential item.
maybe not, but anyway we are - in spite of everything - managing to keep a good supply of gifts coming your way. Bryant, our head of ordering, tells me we have more open PO's than ever and lots of containers on the way. But he tells me we need a lot more from Indonesia, stock is coming far too slowly.
But good news is coming, visa restrictions and travel restrictions are being relaxed the world over. I really think soon I can see Coco, my wife. Even Australia just announced the opening of international borders.
More good news..
It's Rodrigo's (our marketing man in the UK) 7th Birthday..
Yes really - at AW we try to remember birthdays.. And today is Rodrigo 7th anniversary of starting work at AW.. how time flies and how much has happened in that time!
And even more good news: Halloween is on the way to cheer us up!! Yes it's October guys.. and to prove it we have just launched a limited edition.. Halloween Bathbomb range.. see below..
Soon I will be on the way to Indonesia, after quarantine in Jakarta, next stop will be Bali. We have a 2000 square meter warehouse there. Why do we need our own warehouse? Well the artisans of Bali are not really geared to packing their products in boxes, putting a barcode on it and then packing them in a master carton. Traditionally this has been done by local Cargo Companies who charge per cubic meter to do the packing job. But not only is this very expensive, but you can only get standard packaging and quality control is not seen as part of the job. So early on we worked out that we could "take back control" (to borrow a phrase) with our own cargo warehouse, and only needed to ship about six containers a year to cover the cost of the staff and warehouse compared to Cargo Company rates. We started in a small warehouse in Ubud about ten years ago, moved to a larger warehouse nearby after three years and then realised we needed much bigger so about three years ago took over a rather dilapidated warehouse that had previously been the Coca Cola depot for the island. We made it nice - regular readers will know the story..
Ringo, our agent in Indonesia runs the place, and under his calm and capable direction we have made a nice place to work and equipped an office, In the office we have a meeting area to connect with artisan suppliers, a small photo studio and mini showroom.
Our initial motivation was to streamline the packaging and despatch, but making a nice office/hub has had many more benefits than I had anticipated. Artisans drop in with new samples, they collaborate - ideas are born - improvements made.
I love to go out and meet new suppliers and visit the old ones, but most stock arrives at the warehouse on the back of small pickup trucks driven by the boss. So spend a day at the warehouse you get to meet face to face more artisans than buzzing all over the island.
Ringo and the warehouse, the pot garden by the offices..
In the UK at our Affinity Park site - The HQ of AW.. we made new offices also. Tomas has been working on it.. one idea he had was to create a zone of the office as a kind of homage to that place in Bali. It's just finished...
My mission in Bali is to find a way to inspire the artisans to scale up - to think big. The pandemic has destroyed much of the tourist economy, and the handicraft sector has been a bit of a life-line as companies like AW have continued to order. But many artisans don't think beyond small family only business - the idea of renting a decent workshop and employing staff is just too daunting. I'm thinking of helping with funding and have a mentor/training program running. Some way to increase speed and volumes of goods produced - which would be a win/win - employing more workers, increasing prosperity. The people of Bali are amazingly creative, easy to work with, hard working and honest. But thinking big is not on the menu.
If you have any ideas - do let me know.
I'm beyond excited to be going back to Bali.. hope you can join me in spirit via this newsletter.
Take care - be kind to someone.. more news next week.
Share :