Top Drawer Trade Show

It’s all go at the moment in the office with Jane and myself getting ready for Top Drawer, just to add, the first trade show we have ever done, no pressure…! 

Jane and John left shortly after 10:30, not quite the 9am they were planning! Everything all prepped and boxed up in the van, how much easier it is planning for Top Drawer rather than the Spirit of Christmas, no stock needed, one of each product, and then just the two of us. 

The first of the pictures I started receiving from Jane, it definitely didn’t look like much when I received this…

Getting there… It’s easy from where I’m sat, at my desk at HQ!

Nearly there…don’t think I’ll mention it sloping along the top!

Think they both deserve the next picture I received…

and it’s complete, rather impressed for the first show this year hopefully many more to come. 

Sunday morning I catch the train up to get ready for the next three days, meeting new potential customers, putting names to faces and looking for new products ourselves. Doesn’t sound like we are going to stop. It is a great show to network with people and really make the most of new products we have available.

Staying in London really adds to the show as I get to catch up with friends that live there, it is so different to where I live, we can actually socialise after 9pm and there are bars and restaurants open! It really makes you feel refreshed for the next day, or not! 

Breaking down after the show is something I have never done before, so I will describe it in one word…easypeasy, not quite one word but so much easier than the Spirit of Christmas breakdown!

Again we have managed to bump into our Spirit of Christmas friends and have brief catch ups before we must all head home, back to HQ’s and to crack on with the workload we have brought back!

-Shannon 

New JS Staff

Since the last blog we posted we had the likes of, Lisa, Leanne and Martha working for us. A lot has changed since then, their choice to leave though, not ours! They have all taken the next steps in their careers, Lisa has gone into admin in a school, Leanne has gone to a college working in admin and Martha is doing a university degree. All three of them started at Jonny’s Sister doing an apprenticeship in business and administration. 

(Clockwise- Alec, Shannon (ME!), Martha, Leanne, Lisa and Lara) 

Although they are all sadly missed at JS we have employed some newbies! It started with Becky, then Emma, Katie and Rhiannon. Here’s a little bit about them;

Becky is our chief despatch person! She is in charge of despatching all items on time and making sure they are sent out in a JS standard state, poor Becky as we have such high standards!

Emma is our new admin team member! She has office experience and is a whizz at speaking to customers on the phone, she deals with the order management making sure everything is with the correct suppliers and being despatched on time.

Katie is another new admin team member! She used to work at TESCO dealing with the charity events that happened in her local store. She is a very bubbly person and was chucked in the deep end when she joined about 6 weeks before Christmas! 

Rhiannon is a new studio member! She finished her design degree in summer just gone and is super talented with her work, although she doesn’t say so herself! At JS she works on the production of orders that are done in house and new product development. 

So there you have it, a quick introduction to our new JS members. There are still the three of us from the old team, Alec, Lara and Me, oh and don’t forget Jane, John and the dogs! 

-Shannon