David's AW News: Shock in China

Greetings from Yiwu, China.

Every day is a wild adventure here, far too much to report in an update you will want to read quickly.

Tomas and Sandra are here. Sandra is our talented designer from the UK the genius behind our best-selling Hop Hare Brand. So we brought Sandra here to see what possibilities are here and give her a major inspirational boost.  See below.

Last week I was telling you about the crazy journey to get here from India and more about that Mad Honey.. if you missed you can catch up here.

Sandra and Tomas - in Yiwu!

It's hard work!

Everyday we are working long hours, seven days a week.. it's full on. Sandra is a little bit in shock - but this is normal in China. People work hard.

The other day we went on a factory visit to one of our old suppliers, soap flowers - in the next city. Coco drove us there and we arrived a huge complex, warehouse / factory with seven floors. The boss who we have known a few years met us on the entrance to the complex and directed us to his place.  We have delt with them for years, soap flowers sell well (in some markets very well) but it's highly competitive and price and quality - and all the compliance papers etc have to be spot on.

We asked him about the Trump tariffs and like many of our suppliers he played down the effect, he said only 10% of orders go America and these days big growth from South America and Africa can make up the slack. Anyway their main market by far is Japan. In the showroom we found some strange Japanese things.. including bouquets of soft cute toys.

Haha fun but we decided not really an Ancient Wisdom thing. Shockingly bad taste :)

We had a tour of the factory, and found really good working conditions, spacious and organised. Happy smiling staff and really helpful designers keen to work with us.

We buy a lot of soap flower bouquets from here, and these are becoming increasingly popular, similar price (maybe less than) a real flower bouquet, but will keep for a long time, and should you tire of it can be used in the bath. 

So Sandra was a little bit shy at first, but soon got into the design process - she came equipped with idea and with the help of the inhouse designer quickly made a new range of bouquets.

It's great to see creativity and collaboration in action, and this company so easy to deal with, keen to meet our price expectation and nothing too much trouble.

If I get time I'll upload a YouTube video about the visit. You can register for our channel and stay up-to date here.

Actually our suppliers this time seem to be super happy.. to see us.

One supplier (our Atomiser supplier) declared it was eight years we had been trading with us and insisted on taking us out for a nice meal. They took us to a ridiculously lavish restaurant, like an indoor landscaped garden, with a river and live classical Chinese music. We had our own private room with three staff (and a musician) to serve us. But the food was mostly shellfish with the speciality giant spider crab. Neither me, Tomas or Sandra are fans of this kind of seafood. But we enjoyed the company and experience. But quite shocked at the things you could eat here!

Nomad Sai - brand T-shirts are finally here!

Back in the UK - Rodrigo and team have been enthusiastically getting into fashion photography and seems like all AW staff want to be models - haha!

Well the Stonewashed Mandela T-shirts arrived.. and everyone loves them. Which makes me so happy, because I put a massive amount of work into this product. Designed by our Bali designer, Bondhan, produced in Kathmandu, with co-ordination between the factory (we checked good working conditions), the stonewashing house, the screen-print workshop and our Mr Suman finishing, packing and all the co-ordination.. this is not fast fashion.. it took forever.

Selling fast! Stock up now.

Lots of products arrived recently.. and the team are working hard to get everything online asap.

Also a major BACK IN STOCK!

Anyway - lots to do!!

Enjoy your week.

Hope business is good.

Take care, more updates next week.

David


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