talking shop ‘I love Christmas’
Guest columnist Sarah Wood, joint managing director of Trevor Mottram cookshop in Tunbridge Wells, airs her views on festive trading
Housewares Market], plus local fairs for artisan suppliers. I’m lucky to have the final say on product, so
we largely sell things that I like and would have at home (which is probably not the most commercial way), but I’ve always found this allows me to be passionate about a product - and pass my passion onto my staff. The newest products into us are some bespoke boards from Devon made of sycamore, Mason Jars from the USA with their bread-making and kimchi kits - and Cristel saucepans, bought direct from France, have made their way back in.
can carry weird stuff. The business was set up by my uncle
T
Trevor Mottram (who was actually an interior designer) in 1975, so it’s our 44th birthday on December 7. We’re located in the Kent spa town of
Tunbridge Wells on The Pantiles, which is in effect an18th century shopping precinct: a raised paved walkway shaded by lime trees and fronted by a variety of shops behind a colonnade. For me, our key product categories are pans and knives but I’ve got more excited about bakeware this year too. We have in excess of 80 suppliers, ranging from tiny one-man bands to the larger companies that you all know. Probably our key brands are Scanpan and
Wusthof from distributor Haus, although we have done a lot more with brands from Forma House such as Eva Solo in the last couple of years.
Selling well at the moment are Chilly’s
reusable water bottles and any eco-friendly products. Obviously we’re looking closely for sustainability in products now but, to me, that means miles travelled too. A branch of The Zero Waste Company has also opened a few doors away, so while we aren’t competing with them, it does focus the consumer and us. [Billed as the first completely plastic-free store in Tunbridge Wells, this shop invites shoppers to bring their own containers - or buy some in-store or use its free compostable paper bags - weigh and label goods and buy only what they need.] We source products via trade shows. Last
year I was lucky enough to attend the German exhibition Ambiente and the International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago [now renamed The Inspired Home Show, IHA’s Global Home +
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housewareslive.net •
HousewaresLive.net •
twitter.com/Housewaresnews December 2019
revor Mottram is a strange store - not huge at 1,100sq ft - but we have the most amazing space for stock, so we
“Let’s look forward to
feeling nicely exhausted as the tills ring”
Seasonal sales Tableware is slow at the moment but I’m sure that will have a surge at Christmas. We do seem to be selling tons of spirit measures this year - we have accurate government-stamped ones made in Sussex, along with some fab cocktail sets. We don’t really have a typical customer. Ages
range from keen bakers of 10 years old to a lovely lady aged 94 who recently had to stop water-skiing! We have as many passionate male cooks as female. We have a couple of demos coming up to celebrate our birthday, and
details of these will be promoted on our social media platforms. Christmas has started and I’m shattered finding homes for so much stock! But I do try very hard to have nothing, apart from emergency stuff, arriving after mid-November. At the time of writing, people are quite focused on Christmas this year but we all hope that we will get the mad panic towards the end. Lots of customers come in early so they can get items posted to family overseas. Sadly we haven’t done Christmas decorations
this year - hopefully we will do so next year when we can open up our first floor. The Pantiles can be very pretty at Christmas time (so long as it isn’t raining). Although to my mind, we have too many Markets here, as we are not flush with parking, so I can be a bit ‘bah humbug’ about that. [The Pantiles Market is held on the first and third weekend of each month, combining hot food and seasonal local produce with a selection of artisan crafts, gifts, clothing and accessories.] We will be putting our Christmas trees, from Danish company Sirius Home, up on our balcony about a week so before this goes to print, and we have a competition for a late night personal shopping experience. I love Christmas and, like you, we love the
customers - well, 99% of them! We all, I’m sure, get asked for something that we had on display in June! We will all be wearing our Christmas jumpers soon and our lovely reindeer brooches that I’ve had made especially for us. Let’s look forward to feeling nicely exhausted as the tills ring.
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