Gift Focus - Jan/Feb 2018 (Issue 105)

admired in Europe for hundreds of years and we find that the love affair continues. Almost every museum and stately home in the UK will have examples of fine porcelain and many of the colours, patterns and styles have never gone out of fashion. Today, these same styles lend themselves to our everyday items and our catalogue features vases, ginger jars, table lamps, stools and trinket boxes in rich oriental designs. Alongside this sits a collection of tableware which has also expanded hugely from traditional rice bowls wrapped in paper to include lustrous glazes and presentation boxes for a whole range of bowls, tea-sets, saké bottles, sushi plates and mugs. What’s your most popular collection? Since we first introduced a few table lamps to our range around 10 years ago, they have become a cornerstone of our collection. Despite their Chinese decorative style and traditional shapes, they seem to blend in smoothly with predominantly European décor. Yet for every European designer who creates a room with a Chinese theme, there are far more interior designers and hoteliers who furnish their rooms and lobbies with our lamps, not intending to create a specifically Chinese ambience, and yet our lamps still mesh effortlessly with European or other non- Chinese styles of décor and furniture. Although most lamp retailers are specialised shops or online retailers, many of our giftware customers have introduced our lamps into their shops. So many of the lamps are really eye-catching pieces and have a curious ability to stop a passer-by in their tracks to take a longer look. That’s a magical ability for a retailer and, with the rise of online retailing, even the smallest high street shop can sell a whole range of larger items through their website without being limited by physical display space. Do certain exhibitions create a buzz for your product? For example, China’s First Emperor and the Terracotta Warriors is opening in Liverpool in February 2018. What will you do to promote sales during this time? Shops at museums and other visitor attractions have been very loyal to our product range and are very important customers for us. There are quite a number of permanent displays of oriental artefacts around the UK, but a touring exhibition of something so iconic as the terracotta warriors is bound to raise the level of interest in both the exhibition and in Chinese history in general. We’ve been suppliers to the National Museum of Liverpool for many years and wish them success for this prestigious exhibition. On a personal level, I’m very excited and already have my tickets booked as it sounds like a great exhibition! On a professional level, we’re looking to expand our number of warrior-related and Qin- and Shang dynasty- related items to make the most of the upsurge in interest. After so many years importing from China, we’re in a very privileged position to have so many good contacts in place to facilitate this. The majority of our suppliers are at the smaller end of the production scale and each time we return for more products, it’s like reacquainting yourself with old friends. How do you keep your designs fresh and current? How often does Mandarin Arts launch new lines? As a supplier of traditionally-styled items, it’s always going to be somewhat problematic to keep your designs fresh and current. On the one hand, the traditional look of the product or its decoration is a strong part of the appeal, giftfocus 49 company profile