retail international
BABY HARBOUR
Harbouring love at
Baby Harbour This month BCMI Member and Editor in Chief of nursery trade publication Baby Wereld! Carola Siksma-Ruiters brings Nursery Today readers an international flavour with an article from The Netherlands.
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ince the beginning of April, Baby Harbour has been open, a unique shop by the Katwijk harbour with a nearby fabric shop owned by the same owners. And this offers many advantages to both the shops and customers. Carola spoke to owner Ellen Schut to find out more. Owner Ellen Schut was trained as a paediatric nurse, is a mother of four children and regularly assisted her husband Wim, who ran two fabric shops and took part in fabric shows in Benelux. Ellen was definitely finding her day-to-day never produced a dull moment! Ellen: “I never did this reluctantly and I like to tackle things, but eventually I found myself at home dealing with a burn-out.” After a long period of recovery, she took up the activities of the Holland Stoffenhuis webshop. “One thing led to another. A friend found old rattan cradles that we upholstered with the most beautiful fabrics from the shop and resold them. This was followed by playpen covers and blankets, which went very well. It turned out that there was a demand in this region and when this building became available we did not hesitate.” The fact that this was during the
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nursery today
Carola Siksma-Ruiters
pandemic did not stop them. Ellen: People here are corona “Oh no, I couldn’t sleep, I just wanted to also quite loyal open on April 2 and get started!” to local entrepreneurs. No clear-cut plan We don’t make A funny incidental circumstance: the fabrics shop at number 5 is in the same a fuss about building as where the baby specialty shop exchanges; if Bebel used to be. There was no clear-cut plan for the shop. “Initially, the fabrics for many hard goods in the shop. According to people are in doubt about a baby and children’s rooms were moved to Ellen, this was a conscious decision because the new premises at number 8, but that she did not want to compete with the large colour of didn’t work out. Because for yarn, tape and baby specialty shops. canopy, we say: other haberdashery, you had to go to the A private workshop with take it with you, fabric shop again. We came across baby products through one of our fabric fabrics from Holland see what fits representatives. We decided to just start Stoffenhuis best at home with that.” From this there is now a Happy Unique are the ordinary and playpen blankets, and pay us later Baby room, dresser and bed from Done by little sheets, and clothing, made in their own Deer, various rattan cradles and dolls’ carriages from Aangeenbrug’s Rotan Meubelfabriek, luxury buggies from Leclerc, toys from Quut, furnishings from Baby’s Only, Snoozebaby, Witlof for kids, Mies & Co, crockery from Mushi and Done by Deer and various clothing brands such as Bamboom and Musli. There are not
workshop with the fabrics from their own Holland Stoffenhuis and the label from Baby Harbour. “We have also entered into a collaboration with By Fabiënne Babymusthaves. Parents can find many different handmade baby items and maternity gifts here, such as a baby nest, playpen rug, changing pads, etc. These can be personalised
