Gift Focus - Jan/Feb 2019 (Issue 111)

How do you keep your designs fresh, and how often do you launch new lines? We look at trends in the industry and outside – and we try to bring out our new lines around January in time for show season. It’s important to us to be as unique as possible and understand what our customers need to make their offering even better. Are there any challenges or highlights from your years in the business you’d like to share? Having a family-style, happy motivated team is the most important thing to start with. The rest will follow if your team are enjoying themselves. Are you active on social media? How important is this for the business? Yes. It’s a tricky one, though, as we are mainly trade – we have to understand the people we are speaking to on social media. Our customers? Or their customers? Nevertheless, we’ve always got a story going on! How are you finding the current economic climate? Has anything been affecting business? Of course, it’s not easy. Brexit, living costs and the shift in retail are all challenging things that we are all working with at the moment. Do you have any tips for new traders? It takes 10 years to become an overnight success. Take your time. Which trade shows do you visit and why? Spring Fair, Harrogate, Autumn Fair and Ambiente – we find them to be good showcases and platforms to launch new products. It’s also great to see our existing customers and meet new ones. What will 2019 bring for the company? More fun products! “No business has been easy over the past 10 years – the global recession and now Brexit makes the landscape tricky, but we continue to expand our customer base and our product ranges.” For more information visit, sockacademy.com or see the full product lineup at Spring Fair on stand 6N42-P43. giftfocus 53 company profile