business matters leadership and entrepreneurs
December/January august/september december/january june/july 2020-21 2019 2018 business edge
This year’s winner of Young Start-Up Talent (South East) Anthony Mellor, age 22 and MD of White2Label Manufacturing tells his entrepreneurial journey so far... A lot of people wonder what makes a good leader or entrepreneur. Are these individuals just born with innate skills that allow them to perform better at certain tasks than most?
to another order. I simply didn’t have trust in my supply chain. So, I decided to start White2Label Manufacturing with an aim that would remain extremely simple; provide startups and already established businesses with amazing quality products, a great service and add credibility into an industry that lacks just that. It sounds simple, right? The beauty in this was in its execution. There’s a reason manufacturers impose high minimum order quantities – it’s because no matter what they are (500 or 50,000 pieces per colour) those who work with you, will always have to order at least that.
It’s a question I always asked myself when I’d hear the stories on the news about how the CEO’s of these huge multi-million, or even billion-pound businesses had hit a new milestone, and for that moment in time, I’d always consider whether or not I could stand alongside them one day.
However, this isn’t viable for start-ups. So, I created a minimum viable product where our unique selling point would be our white label service- lowering MOQs (Minimum Order Quantity) and decreasing lead times, all whilst offering a UK based service for brands.
My entrepreneurial story doesn’t start with the more common scenario, as with many successful entrepreneurs, of selling sweets in school narrative. It starts with me sat in my study at Sixth Form wondering how cool it would be if I saw people wearing clothes I’d designed, I’m not talking about seeing work I’d done for another brand, I mean it being my brand. That’s where the journey began and before I knew it, I had essentially built the foundations of a fashion business just through researching online – using Google, YouTube, reading books and listening to podcasts. Upon realising I pretty much had a brand, I just needed to execute on this idea. I took the £2,000 I had saved up during my A-Levels from working weekend catering jobs, to invest into product. It was at that point that I became committed to being an entrepreneur. It might not seem like a lot, but that £2,000 was one of the biggest risks I ever took – it would’ve been very easy to let doubt creep in and
Anthony Mellor avoid taking that step. I think that’s the beauty of entrepreneurship – it’s risky and scary but equally exciting and extremely rewarding. Fast forward a couple of years and the brand was growing. I’d launched four very successful collections via social media campaigns and the audience was growing with increasing customer lists. All was going well but something was missing… the manufacturing sector was extremely hard to navigate. It felt as though I was gambling my hardearned money every time I committed
Fast forward to today, I truly believe White2Label Manufacturing is on course to be one of the market leaders. Every single week we’re signing more and more clients, taking a larger chunk of the market, investing into infrastructure, equipment, stock and staff – all of which serves the simple purpose of providing amazing quality products, a great service and adding credibility to an industry that lacks just that. The most exciting thing about the above, is how I went from shipping the occasional t-shirt every fortnight to pallets of boxes weekly. It all started with that initial step, it was maintained with a lot of hard work and grit and an insane amount of perseverance. These traits are what I feel makes a great entrepreneur and I believe it’s exactly what’s going to make myself and White2Label Manufacturing an entrepreneurial success story.
“I took the £2,000 I had saved up during my A-Levels from working weekend catering jobs, to invest into product. It was at that point that I became committed to being an entrepreneur. It might not seem like a lot, but that £2,000 was one of the biggest risks I ever took – it would’ve been very easy to let doubt creep in and avoid taking that step.”
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