Let your heart be light
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay,
From now on,
our troubles will be miles away.  
So goes the words of the song, and so here we are dancing merrily as we work.. before breaking up (literally) until the new year.

Tomorrow is also the winter solstice, deep mid-winter, the shortest day, so Yuletide Greetings!! From now on the days get longer and warmer, that's a good reason to celebrate no? Make the Yule-tide gay :)

Friends, customers, readers of this newsletter.. it's almost the end of the year, Heavens! the decade even! 2020 will bring many rewards and many (I feel) challenges - but for now Our troubles will be far away.. as we look forward to the festive season. A warm heartfelt thanks to all our customers for all your support, feedback and trade in 2019 . And now on-wards - and upwards - together. It's the end of the decade, and for a second join me as I glance back 10 years to 2009.. 

10 years ago.. AW had just moved to a new modern warehouse (we are still here much expanded taking over most of the business park) we had 30 employee's (now almost 100) We had a partnership with a Spain company that (despite huge effort) ended in tears, but now we have just launched AW Artisan - from a new warehouse in Malaga.. and it's going great guns. 

Two years ago we founded AWGifts.eu  from a Slovakian base and this is growing like a weed supplying all Eastern Europe.

In 2012 we started our adventure in Indonesia, regular readers will have heard stories about our man Ringo.. who has helped AW expand it's range and suppliers of Artisan products. We moved from our small Ubud warehouse to a new 1000 sq meter warehouse just outside Denpasar this year.

Pictures from the Bali warehouse yesterday..

In China, on the back of all this expansion our small candle factory (making soywax candles) is busy busy, and our Agent - Coco.. has shipped a record number of containers.. Coco took over the job in 2006 and this year shipped 30 containers (up from 8 in 2005). Well done Coco.. There are other corners of AW - like our IT team in Kuala Lumpa or new agents in Nepal and Morocco.. but a special mention for our India agent Mr Chatterjee.

In India we continue to invest in the orphanage we support. Mr Chatterjee (our agent in India) has worked hard and unstintingly to support the children's home. After fixing the buildings and making it nice (when we found it in 2013 there was no running water, electricity the roof was broken in the kids in little more than rags). Recent years we invested in teachers.. an English teacher, a computer teacher, and an Art teacher. Now as they come of age the kids are getting decent jobs..they can chat to me in pretty good English.. and this Christmas they are even holding an art exhibition of their work in the local town centre.

Merry Christmas from India! 

Back here 

The guys are unloading an China container, it's stuffed full of eco-friendly bamboo toothbrushes and lots of other non-plastic items.. I'm so happy and excited.. Perfect for Spring 2020..
It's the first of several containers that will arrive during the Christmas season the early part of next year.  So expect lots of new Spring stock right of the bat in 2020 the Eco-Friendly Year at AW.. we have lots of lovely earth-friendly products coming your way..
The goods out and customer service teams are having a little mad rush working to dispatch the last of the orders, tidying up all those loose ends and last minute jobs, but they are having fun I can see. Party hats, boxes of chocolate everywhere, and Xmas music drifting in the air.. Very much a party/work day today.. this spirit of Christmas, peace and goodwill. Fun and festivity and we'd like to spirit this jolly feeling to all our customers, and readers.

The way Christmas falls this year means our customers (You) have a few more days of retail rush.. which we hope is fun and successful. We'll be back on the 2nd Jan 2019 working hard to get your orders off as quick as possible (despite our hangovers).. you can order anytime over the Christmas period, and we'll be dispatching orders in rotation.. first in first out.

It's been a wonderful year, an incredible decade.. a roller-coaster, a party, an exciting ride. If you have followed along by reading this weekly newsletter, I hope you have enjoyed been involved.
Who knows how 2020 will pan out, (don't mention Brexit), but for sure it will be exciting. Big Retail is in a bigger mess than ever.. and I firmly believe now is the time that the independents (like you) can shine..
Come all ye.. Artisan Retailers, Innovative Independents, The Enthusiastic Specialists, Ethical Traders... you guys are in the antecedent 2020 and the next decade will be awesome!

Finally ..

On behalf of everyone at Ancient Wisdom I'd like to wish you a relaxing and peaceful Christmas and let's hope and pray.. bright positive new year.

With Fun Festive Greetings, Have yourself a merry little Christmas, now... 

See you next year :)

David