Heaven & Hell
Fri Nov 26 2021 16:27:00 GMT+0800 (Malaysia Time)
Greetings from the wet season in Bali.
Hope you are doing well and trade is rocking..
Here in Bali when it's not raining it's stinking hot, I didn't know it could rain so much! Whenever I have been here this time of year it could rain pretty damn heavy but usually not for so long or so hard as it has this week.
I'm not complaining, in fact I'm loving Bali more and more.. here covid is almost zero, very high vaccination rates and fastidious mask wearing have squashed the virus into submission. In a population of 4 million only a few people are in hospital and no deaths for days.Here in Bali still no tourists at all, the government is still only allowing business or family visas.. so no-one is really coming. So Ubud has become calm and bohemian again - just like in the "Eat,Love Pray" movie.. It is maybe selfish because so many businesses are suffering but it's nice to frequent the few cool places that remain and see familiar faces everywhere. I'm making lots of friends including three retired giftware exporters who chose to retire to Ubud.. who knows maybe I will do the same. It's Heaven.
It's very different in parts of Europe of course.. our team in Slovakia (AWgifts.eu) is under huge stress, it's back to dark difficult days there. New lockdown and about 5 staff off with covid. It's hell. And this right on top of the busy trading period. I'm sure your thoughts and prayers are with them. They are AW hero's and we stand strong with you in spirit.
Ubud is giftware heaven.. and where giftware entrepreneurs go to die.
But not yet! There is so much to do.. we have been working like demons, developing product lines - revamping, renewing, re-visiting old products.. it's all go! in Bali.
Last week I was telling you about the visit to the Molten Glass on wood factory where you via AW have put 90 people back to work.. if you missed it you can catch up here.
One guy who has a small family business painting the Buddha pictures we sell, also does sign writing as a sideline. We decided to give him a few days' work and revamp our warehouse in Bali.
Ringo (our man in Indonesia) said that the old sign was a bit confusing anyway. A couple of years ago we had a customer competition to name our new warehouse - and it was christened "Frangipani Depot". Which is lovely as the whole street is lined with frangipani trees. Since the Ringo has been taking cuttings and planting frangipani branches in every spot and pot possible around our compound making it fab frangipani land.
The problem with the name is the term "depot" - in Indonesian this is another word for warrung or cafe.. and a few none-locals keep popping in asking what's on the menu.
So hence a slight revamp to "Frangipani Warehouse" and the addition of the new AW logo - which you will be seeing more of soon.
Bondan - our new designer and PA to Ringo - wanted to add his mark.. and came up with the " Do what you love" - " Love what you do" signage to go above the office windows.. I like it :)
There is a village not far from our warehouse that specialises in carved Buddha statues. We have never really visited it although Ringo has been mentioning it many times. So this week we went to visit a windy road weaves between workshops and rice paddy and artisans sit even by the road chopping away at lumps of wood until like magic mythical figures appear. Part of the business here is making statues for temples..
ingo likes to just knock on doors and say hello until we meet people who are happy to work with us.
A lot of the export trade gets filtered through "marketing" people.. who present themselves as artisan companies. It's these people who have the instagram accounts and websites. When you give them an order the actual work gets shunted around different artisans in villages like this to find the best price, so ultimately quality suffers and the artisan works for the minimum. I'm not saying all "marketing" companies are bad.. they can add value with better or new designs and organise and coordinate lots of different family workshops to enable the volume orders to happen. But at AW we always like to get close to the artisans themselves.
We spotted this guy carving a huge statue..
We asked if he was the boss, he looked amused but pulled out his phone and called the actual boss.
After a few minutes a couple and young child appeared on a scooter.. at first they were a bit wary of us, but Ringo explained to them about AW and how we work. They didn't even have a business card, and had never dealt directly with exporters.
In normal times they would get regular contracts from agents plus supplying local tourist retailers. And this would be enough. Now the tourist trade has gone and the agents don't call. So they were very happy to talk to us..
This is Novita Dewi and her husband.. Because they are not far from our warehouse, they keep turning up with samples, offering different finishes and new designs..
There is nothing like a bit of enthusiasm to endear you to people and for sure they love their art a lot. Here are some examples..
These are all what they call "unfinished" pieces. Often another place will do the finishing, sometimes even the retailers in the tourist areas do the finishing giving the impression that they are making on the spot.
Here you can see the different finishes that Novita brought to our office.
But my time in heaven is coming to an end. Soon I must return to Europe. It's not bad.. I'm looking forward to seeing my family and friends for Christmas.. and that first pint of pale ale in a cosy Yorkshire pub.
Other good news is that Coco (my wife) has applied for a UK visa and may be able to travel to the UK for Christmas. But there are complications.. so let's see. Fingers crossed.
By next Friday I will be in Spain, later to the UK. Before I have lots of work to do.. we seem to be working long days.. I have tasked Ringo and Bondan with a target of shipping at least one container a week.
This will be a lot easier when shipping rates normalise, because many low value bulky products - like bamboo wind chimes - are simply off the list because they cost too much to ship.
In the UK it's really rocking.. now containers are turning up everyday, new products from our aromatics factory coming online. We are running a little behind with orders, but our warehouse team is working like demons, and putting in overtime and weekend shifts to make it happen.
Hope you are trading well and keeping safe.
More news next week..
David
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