UK retailing
UK-sourced materials proving popular Handmade craftsmanship has seen a real boom during the lockdown period in the UK. This has meant UK-based manufacturers have seen a real spike in demand. During quarantine, many people conscious of
their ever-increasing screen-time, have been turning to traditional hobbies such as journaling, with the Royal Mail, recently reporting one in five Brits ordering stationery in a bid to be more creative. For luxury stationery company, Bark & Rock sales of its high-end notepads and diaries have not waivered during lockdown.
The company has continued to handmake its books at its Surrey-based workshop with strict social-distancing measures in place. Bark & Rock will launch its new Walnut Burr notebook this month. The B5-sized edition is made from the burr of the Walnut tree, in a growth normally found in the root system offering wonderful wood grain patterns. The walnut veneer is only extracted once the
tree has passed its peak nut harvesting when the tree is cut down and replaced with a new one. This veneer is not cut from a log but rather sliced into very thin sheets around 0.6mm thick, so it is more sustainable. Luke Gosling, Bark & Rock director, comments: “We source the veneer from the UK and make all our books from hand. It takes our craftsman four days to make a book from start to finish.
“This wood is full of holes and knots, originally caused by insects and fugal attack, so it can be a challenge to work with. The final finish is worth it because no two books are the same due to the natural nature of the wood.”
A UK vibe this Christmas Similarly, industry experts see a trend towards arts and crafts, and bespoke housewares, as the UK collectively tightens its belt. A trend towards more ‘thoughtful’ gifts may be worth its weight in gold for housewares retailers. So far Hobbycraft has sold 13,000 Christmas ‘fat quarters’ fabric packs, 3,000 decorate-your- own linen stockings and 1,859 decorate-your-own advent calendars online. The retailer has seen a 101 per cent increase
in searches for ‘Christmas’ on its website and ‘Christmas’ has been the most searched for term on its Ideas Hub during the final two weeks of August, with the most popular festive blog post being ‘How to crochet a mini stocking advent’ which saw a 200 per cent increase in views. Searches for Christmas stamps, card, fabric and stickers are up 258 per cent, 1,498 per cent, 291 per cent and 126 per cent respectively, while wreaths were searched for earlier than ever before. Katherine Paterson, customer director at
Hobbycraft comments, “Britain really does have the entrepreneurial spirit and we are seeing and hearing from more customers that they are using our products to create, personalise and
September 2020
design for their own business ventures. We are thrilled to be able to be part of the journey that sees people turn a passion into a business. “We anticipate this Christmas is going to be the biggest handmade Christmas ever. The nation embraced all things crafts related during lockdown, and fell back in love with old past times. The festive season is the perfect opportunity for people to put these newfound skills to use, and create something filled with love for family and friends. “Whether its personalising a bauble,
handcrafting a gift, baking a festive cake or adding a special handmade touch to a carefully wrapped gift, that extra special touch will add some extra sparkle to Christmas this year.”
Consumer driven strategies with UK at the forefront of the message As stores across Europe begin to re-open their doors, retailers who have survived lockdown will need to navigate the uncertainty of the retail landscape and adapt to new market strategies for business to continue, urged Giorgio Vitale, head of Business Development EMEA at B- Stock. Due to the impact of Covid-19 the retail landscape has changed drastically and the changes to the way that consumers used to shop were felt by everyone. While younger buyers are likely to embrace shopping again far quicker than those aged over 50, retailers will need to adapt their strategies to give confidence back to their consumers, advised Vitale.
This pandemic has likely fast-forwarded the adoption of e-commerce and online trading by five to 10 years, but there will be a portion of people who are unable to make that transition and retailers need to work out how they will be serviced.
“The impact on the demographic of the buyer •
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has not been discussed in great length but is something that retailers seriously need to consider, said Vitale. “It is going to take a lot longer for more elderly buyers to return to the shops, with some not returning at all. Whether retailers limit the number of shoppers in a store at a given time or designate specific hours for different segments of customers, new strategies need to be adopted to reduce anxiety and restore confidence in the high street.” At the supply chain level, proficiency levels
have also dropped significantly, and it is unclear whether those proficiency levels will ever be reached again – so adaptation and change will be key, emphasised Vitale. “This pandemic has made retailers and manufacturers review how agile their company structures are and amend their business continuity strategies and how they maintain liquidity within the business. The legacy ways of working and the reliance on a small pool of buyers is no longer enough, so retailers have no choice but to look into alternative options to plug the gaps in the supply chain and offload enormous volumes of overstock and returned goods,” said Vitale. “Having a secondary market disposition channel and transitioning to a private online marketplace from a legacy solution will become more acceptable in cohorts, based on the companies that have already been doing this.” That legacy solution, may be putting UK manufacturing and that message of ‘Made in Britain’, at the top of the agenda…
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