SELECT@Bath Reviewed...

This time last week we were in the Assembly Rooms, Bath expectantly waiting for the next potential buyer to walk around the craft trade fair.

I guess we knew it was going to be a disappointment for a while, there were several indicators: the S@B website was looking decidedly the same as last year, the number of exhibitors seemed low and the quality of exhibitor was nowhere near that of BCTF. But we'd committed; I must admit, we put off making our final payment on the trade fair 'til the last minute, I just thought that there might be a chance it was going to be canceled and I was worried about loosing the money. It seems a few of the exhibitors I spoke with during the fair had one the same.

The rooms were open while 9:00pm on the Saturday for set-up so we didn't have to leave YORK too early; I drove down in one stint, no stopping and we arrived at 6:45; it doesn't take very long for us to set our space up we have this honed now; then off to our guest house and out for dinner.

We arrived at the Assembly Rooms at about 9:30 the next morning, we needed to fold brochures and trade price lists; at 10:00 the rush DIDN"T happen and all day there seemed to be more exhibitors than buyers.

Of those buyers that did come many were with children and it seemed more of a day out than a buying or looking for new suppliers spree. One wonders why the buyers don't seem to take this trade fair seriously, some people put it down to location, it's not ideal for parking &c, but I think it is too close behind BCTF and in a time of year when shops and galleries have spent their money and now gearing up or concentrating on selling. At BCTF buyers want everything ASAP, here they seemed happy with delivery in June or whenever! I don't think many of the exhibitors here are inspiring too; too many shared stands, too many magazines and publications, some like the craft and design magazine just leaving unattended tables with piles of magazines!

Monday was better than a very uninspiring Sunday, we had some great interactions with a number of municipal galleries &c. The halls were empty of buyers by about 2:30 and we had to wait 'til 4:30 before we could pack-up.

So why did we do it if we thought it wasn't going to be a success? Well, we love visiting Bath, you get a short break in a beautiful city and can put it all on the businesses accounts.

Will it happen next year? I'm certain it won't, the aisles were too wide, there was too much space and not enough exhibitors or buyers. If it does go ahead, we couldn't justify doing it again. It's a shame really because it's one of the few fairs that gets exposure in the south-west, though most of our orders seemed to come from Wales this time around.

BCTF Reviewed…

I am late writing this! We finished BCTF on a good Tuesday for orders and when we arrived at the studio on Wednesday Sophie had begun the transformations for her exhibiting her installations at York Open Studios and the place was ‘a little’ topsy-turvy.

We don’t need to prepare so much now for trade fairs, we have a stand design & layout that we are pleased with for the moment; I know how everything fits into the back of Landy and Harrogate is so close to home that I was able to do the set-up alone whilst the girls continued to make all the products for display. I can set up the stand in half an hour – lighting, posters, shelving; it’s as simple as that.

We arrived early on the Sunday and displayed our wares, then waited for the buyers to arrive which they duly did, queuing to get in at 10am. The format is usual, many of them walking around with a big bag, notebook and pen in hand; they take a quick look at your stand, look up at the name board and make a note of your name and stand number if they are interested in your products, then continue on down your isle.

Sunday was a good morning and lunch, we were surprised as normally it is a couple of hours before the buyers start buying; we were busy up to about 3 in the afternoon, then things slackened off and the first day the finishing time was 6pm!

I noticed at this trade fair that there was far more people wearing visitor badges rather than buyer badges. We have done BCTF for four years now and usually the exhibitors have badges printed with “Exhibitor – business name” and the buyers have “Buyer – business name”, visitors could be students, people doing a “recce” for potentially exhibiting next year &c. But this year there were far too many visitor badges and in many instances the buyer badges were handwritten with the business name.

I do think that we are still in the grip of this recession, we were taking plenty of orders but in many cases the yield per order was down; last year many first-time buyers were happy to meet our carriage paid amount - £200, this year many of the first-time orders were c£150.

The general turnout format for buyers/visitor goes like this – Sunday, (mainly) larger independent galleries, gift shops &c; Monday, many museum and visitor attraction representatives and Tuesday seems to be a mix. We noticed this year that, people (buyers/visitors) were far more reluctant to handout information than they have been in past years (could this be due to the amount of spam email people are receiving – maybe); generally the information was going in one direction, from us to them.

Another thing you notice is a growing amount of representatives from other businesses try to sell you things such as membership to associations, insurances, publicity &c.

During the whole event we gained ten new stockists, but we must have met (some) 100 of our existing stockists; we debated (Ruth & I) whether it is worth continuing to do the event, our conclusion was that it is, if only to keep a presence and meet our stockists who we can’t get to see any other time.

We bought a MIFI (mobile WIFI) for the business so were able to keep “blogging” and “facebooking” during the event. This year the organizers gave us access to the hall’s WIFI, but it was uselessly slow.

Monday was a good day and Tuesday (usually a little slower), this year, was fantastic. Bespoke seems to be working really well for us, artistically, there seems nothing that the girls can’t achieve and our “literary” emphasis is getting us into many museums and visitor attractions.

Now the order-book is overflowing, this week we shipped over £3,000 of trade orders, don’t want to keep the stockists waiting too long! Though, it is difficult trying to keep that level of productive output for too long. The phone and email keeps pinging with new stockists and orders, it really does keep the team motivated. We need to “get a wiggle on” with these orders as we have SELECT@Bath (another trade event) in early May, so clear these trade orders before we catch another load. This is what it is all about, keeping busy, new ideas, new projects, new designs, new products; answering to no-one (but the tax man)!

Next review will be SELECT@Bath.

2010 - Q1 Complete

We've made it through a difficult couple of months, orders have been sketchy and the order amounts have dropped significantly after Christmas and New-Year; but we'd built up enough fat to see us through and now we're looking forward to the British Craft Trade Fair (BCTF) next week then Select@Bath early May.
Scotland's Trade Fair turned out to be rather good for us, not actually at the fair but after and we're aware of outlets and organizations who are intending to visit us at BCTF.

Late February was very quiet on the trade front and we had to entice trade orders with a discount offer weeks 3/4 of Feb. Retail sales through the website are well up on this time last year, we think it is due to all the Sumptuosity products being given as presents over Christmas.

We acquired a significant number of new stockists and this has helped though this quiet period, seventeen in total. Also, a number of new stockists acquired at Scotland's Trade Fair have re-ordered, a very good sign. A number of new stockists have come to us direct & outside of trade fairs.

Our marketing emphasis outside of trade fairs is definitely based on retail web mail-order sales and sales through the studio; we have a growing section of other British designers goods for sale from the studio and we appear to be gaining a reputation locally for good (predominantly hand crafted) cards; usable crafts (especially of a 'stitch' theme) seem popular, in particular Indianna McMillan-Parkers cacti plant pot pin-cushions; when we get get our next batch I'll put them online too. We also get a surprising number of visits from people we sell to or newsletter who live all over the country.



We've been busy on the designs and product front; we've introduced 37mm square badges into our range, they fit very well between the round button and rectangular brooches; the selection of designs will increase rapidly over the next few weeks, we need to have them ready for BCTF. We've designed a selection of rectangular brooches based on Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management; we're happy with most of the designs but need six or 9 in total.


I really want to get our Alice in Wonderland cards in production but I'm not yet satisfied with my images; I think I should seek the advice of a professional photographer and I have just thought of just the person. Everyone who sees the silk Alice pictures that Sophie has embroidered asks if they are for sale, maybe when I'm happy with the photographs of them.

We will be handing the studio over to Sophie mid April so she can use it for exhibiting space for York Open Studio, she has also had meetings with Father Tim of St. Lawrence and St. Hilda as we are in the very early discussion stages for creating a rather large alter piece.

We're looking forward to a much busier Q2, keep up to date with us through the website, blogs and facebook.

Tuesday in the studio...

A new week and month for Sumptuosity, we were in the studio early and sorting through yesterday's post, a few cheques included which is always great, though most of our remittances are electronic these days; there were a couple of telephone messages too, one existing stockist wanting to place an order, the second was a big surprise, our first contact from a National Trust outlet. Then a couple of hours later a call from a second National Trust outlet; it seems that they have all received their new catalogues which include our products, so two NT order on the first day of the month, not bad.

I had to go through my least pleasant task again today - chasing payment, hopefully, most chases seem genuinely forgotten or misplaced invoice &c.

Tuesday is always busy, firstly with administration of the electronically received trade orders received over the weekend and then with silk preparation - cutting, vilening, circling; the girls race away with their embroidery after a couple of days away; the studio shop was busier than usual again today (which is great), we're enjoying the people browsing and buying but strangely customers always seem to turn-up in droves during lunch time, interrupting our lunch!

A large post run this afternoon and our first purchase shipped to Russia, seems they appreciate Alice in Wonderland there too.

More trade orders arriving electronically as I type, time for printing and filing.

Saturday in the studio…

More selling than making today.

I was at Leeds Metropolitan University studying Marlowe's Dr. Faustus and how to recognize a an early 18th Century Diva - specifically Francesca Cuzzoni with tour of St John's church thrown in too (buildings as primary sources) for the afternoon.

I checked in with Ruth at lunchtime, we had an important delivery to ship - samples to the Museum of London, which had been posted. By all accounts it was difficult sitting at the sewing machine for more than quarter of an hour as the studio was inundated with customers; Sophie was cracking on, head-down as usual, and there were some three trade orders almost fully embroidered and ready for assembling and shipping.

I arrived back at the studio around 4pm and it was indeed, full of customers; time enough left for planning next weeks production.

Sophie's latest creation for our cards project is the image of The Queen of Hearts: