David's AW News: About Tomas, Erika and Buddha

Greetings from Trnova, Slovakia.

Yes, I'm in our Eastern Europe distribution warehouse.. Our big beautiful (Buddha) warehouse.

On Wednesday afternoon, Tomas, Raul (the IT wizard), and me took an Uber to Leeds Bradford airport and boarded a packed and rowdy Ryanair flight to Bratislava. When we landed, all the Slovaks clapped and cheered, have you experienced that? I think only Slovak and Czech people do that. 

Last week, I was telling you about sinkholes in Bali and our new arrivals. If you missed it, you can catch up here.

Regular readers will know about our Trnova adventures. This is Tomas's home town, and after Brexit happened and we realised that selling into Europe to independent gift shops was just not going to work well, so opened a warehouse quickly here.. it has been wildly successful, and a few years ago we moved to a big, beautiful new warehouse - 6000 pallet spaces. 

We wanted to make an amazing space that our team could enjoy working in.. Tomas and Erika (and team) worked hard to make it happen..

Tomas in the staff room.. with its lovely views over the countryside. Unfortunately, the heatwave here ended just as we arrived, it's a bit wet and drizzly, the guys here are complaining that I brought regular UK weather with me. 

Bali Update..

The sinkhole that appeared in the road on Bali and brought the whole island to a grinding halt.. has been fixed - probably because of the social media storm showing log-jammed roads..  the local government pulled out all the stops, and the road will reopen this weekend. Two weeks ahead of the original estimates. Long story short, we should get Indonesian stock in time for Christmas! Our man in Bali, Bondhan, already messaged me they have containers booked for stuffing. 

Buddha obsession.

We are not actually practising Buddhists at AW (as far as I know), but we do (like most folk) appreciate the culture, the art and the calmness of Buddha artefacts. And nowhere more than at our Slovakian HQ.

Even the smoking area has a Big Buddha, the Office wall has Big Buddha art, the meeting rooms have Buddha statues and Tomas with Erika, our super organised manager... and a carved wooden Buddha.

UK Update.

Meanwhile, our new girl Holly has been getting a bit obsessed about our Gemstone Bracelets.. We have lots, actually, too many for one YouTube video, so Holly took the best-selling Power Bracelets and four other ranges to investigate... The 5 Best Selling Gemstone Bracelets.. I can't help thinking if you stock and display these nicely, they will be a little gold mine in any store.

Check the video here. 

Wishing you a calm, peaceful and zen-like week.

Hope you find time to enjoy the summer and get to do the things you love.

Take care!

David


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