Profile
of the job. “I work with my mother,” she says, “I bring my dog to work. I collect my children from school every day and I get to do a job I love with a team that has build up to support the brand. It’s stressful at times but then it’s an amazing journey that we have made.” When asked about her proudest moment, of which there must have been many, Julie is heart- warmingly down to earth and honest. “It was taking the children for their school uniform at John Lewis,” she explains. “T at’s when we knew that we’d done what we set out to do. We just stood and bawled our eyes out.” Clearly, the original reason for building her business has not been forgotten. “It is so important to bring the issue of bullying to the fore and to address it,” states Julie. “T e best way to deal with bullying is open discussion and parents need to be persistent in making a stand for their children.” Satchels from the Cambridge Satchel Company are not just a pretty face, so to
goal that she had set for herself is evident but even more impressive is that fact that she grew the business without any external investment, teaming up with her mother to work from home. “We worked from the kitchen from the fi rst two years,” she recalls, “I invested £600, which was spent on the fi rst bags. I didn’t want external investment as this was a very personal goal.” Instead, Julie used her own initiative and taught herself everything she needed to succeed in her venture. “I learned from a free online course how to build a website and so I made the fi rst one and took the fi rst photos, using my two children as lovely little models.” Although initially created with the children of Cambridge in mind, and perhaps a little inspiration from the magical halls of Hogwarts, Julie’s bags turned out to be a stylish addition to the high-end fashion market, a progression that couldn’t have happened without Julie’s admirable tenacity. “I contacted everyone I could think of to try and get noticed,” she explains, “from fashion bloggers to lifestyle editors. I put cards on community notice boards, contacted shops selling British goods in the US, expat organisations, anyone I could think of. T en I used a £50 Google Adwords voucher to start a Pay Per Click campaign.” When asked about the process involved in the creation of a Cambridge satchel, it is clear that being fi rmly rooted in Great Britain is important to her. “We have very skilled craftsmen and each bag is made by hand,” she beams. “T e machinists do use sewing machines. T e amount of skill involved is great and we are proud to be investing in British manufacturing and supporting such traditional production methods.” T e company’s success, however, have not just been in Britain as bags are supplied
to Bloomingdales as well as Selfridges and Harrods. T ey have even worked with fashion houses such as Comme des Garcons and designers like Christopher Shannon to develop ranges and provide interesting new creative directions for the brand. T ere is something special about the
Cambridge Satchel Company. It is in the quality of the bags and the attention to detail but it is also in the company’s ethos. “We are a very honest company, created with the best of intentions,” says Julie. “We support diversity and celebrate diff erence and we are passionate about our brand.” One gets the impression that this would be an enjoyable company to work for and Julie confi rms this as she describes the benefi ts
speak. T ey represent the strengths of British Manufacturing; celebrate the wonderful achievements of an entrepreneurial spirit and signify the triumphant conclusion of a very important, personal journey. Considering the movie world’s penchant for
young Brits, alongside her gathering demand in fi lm making circles, it seems like it will only be a matter of time until the world knows her name.
For more information go to
www.cambridgesatchel.co.uk
35
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80