77 COMPANY PROFILE obviously really important. We keep our eyes open when we visit garden centres and gift shops. We like to think we over the best customer service we can – in fact we think of ourselves primarily as a service business. We have a great team, many of whom have had their own businesses in the past or still do. We support many charities directly or through specific product sales. A particular favourite is Bees Abroad – they support the development of bee-keeping around the world. We know our products sell fantastically well in the right environment with the right display and many of our customers simply give us a figure and ask us to sort their orders out for them. We have an established niche product range that we keep developing. There are a few cheap copies of some designs out there but we stick to the best quality crystal we can find and do not sell on price. The current climate is not as good as it might be. In addition to UK sales we also export as much as we can. Exporting to Europe has become a huge challenge since Brexit. Obviously there is a lot of gloom and doom talk around the UK economy right now. We have had a couple of customers go under recently – hopefully not canaries in the coalmine. However, one of our most successful periods was in the 1979-1981 recession when we were making the Laser earrings. They were bright and colourful at an affordable price. We have a new range, which is still under wraps but which fits those criteria exactly so we are ever optimistic. As for view the future of independent retail post-pandemic, we sell crystal balls but we haven’t discovered how to use them for predictions yet! I don’t think any retail company can ignore the online market. However, we are social creatures for one thing. I don’t think we will end up in rooms full of screens. We tried social media but got it wrong – so we have suspended it for a while. We are strictly wholesale and we found social media confused that message. My advice for new businesses starting out in the world of gifts would be focus on the product. Focus on the logistics. Figure out who your customer is and make sure you are knocking on the right doors. Make it simple for the customer to buy, whether they are an individual or a shop. Show your idea / product to as many people as possible and take criticism on the chin. Ask for advice – people like being asked. Don’t give up. Persistence brings reward. As for Wild Things we focus on two things: continuous evolution – constantly tweaking and improving our product offering, and Kaizen – constant little improvements to every aspect of the business. WILD THING GIFTS T: +44 (0)1392 211 268 E: sales@wildthingsgifts.com www.wildthingsgifts.com
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