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PROFILE Snowtime
Ring out the old,
ring in the New Mike Withers chairman of Snowtime reflects on past industry problems and is looking forward to 2022
Ring Out the Old, Ring In the New. I am pleased to announce that Trans-Continental Group has a new managing director.
Sara Murray has been with the company for 22 years, first as buying manager and latterly as buying director. There are few people in the Christmas industry more experienced than Sara, who has been in the business for 32 years, having joined Mr. Christmas straight from school. She will bring her vast knowledge of all aspects of the trade to her new role and I have no doubt that her undoubted drive and ambition will ensure the continued success of the company in the years ahead. Lee Kennerley is appointed sales director and is well known in the industry. Lee was with the company for 4 years earlier in the decade and rejoins in his new role in time for Harrogate. I warmly welcome both appointments and look forward to the new team taking the company forward for many years to come.
36 christmas in january
“Well, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted”. So wrote the legendary Cassandra in his first column for the Daily Mirror after the end of the second world war. I rather know how he felt. The Harrogate Christmas And Gift show is the alpha and omega (but not omicron) of the Christmas industry and it is with a certain lightness of heart that I return to my spiritual home, the Harrogate Convention Centre, so recently a Nightingale hospital. How quickly things can change. Having spent a good part of the last 27 years in the Far East sourcing products, I have not been able to travel there for the last two. However, as when contemplating a dismal score during a round of golf, I remind myself that the situation may not be ideal but it is the situation, and we have to make the best of it.
We have all had to adjust to the new reality and change our way of working. This has meant countless Zoom calls with factories, selection of new products from images, designs sent instantly backwards and forwards by the miracle of technology but what has not changed is the determination to serve our customers and not let anyone down. We all know the difficulties in the supply chain. Last year we paid on average $1,800 per container, this year $18,000, a staggering tenfold increase. And don’t get me started on the idiot who got his boat stuck in the Suez Canal! I formed the view early on that we had no choice but to accept the ridiculous freight rates and told my shipping manager to stop asking me for permission
but to get on and ship ASAP. As my staff are no doubt sick of hearing me say, there is one thing worse for a business than having stock at inflated prices, and that is having no stock at all. January is a time for looking forward, not back, so, as an incorrigible optimist, I believe that things will be better in 2022, that the worst is behind us and that only the “sunlit uplands” lie before us. SnowTime has a wonderful new product range to present to customers, we have a strong team in all departments, tempered in the travails of the last two years, but most importantly, we have a broad base of loyal customers that we have served for more than 26 years and hope to continue doing so for many more. Happy New Year.
christmasinjanuary.co.uk
