Receiving that 1st order was an amazing feeling
but also a daunting one as we suddenly had a load of our Bamboo T-shirts to
sell. We had our website up and running and had received a number of pre-orders
but beyond that were unsure how people and retailers would react to our
revolutionary clothing!
With Christmas 2010 fast approaching we decided to move the
business from Langport in rural Somerset, to the bright lights of the big city
of Bristol, to start marketing and selling our wares in as many markets and
events as possible. This was all good, but to help raise finance for the 1st
order I’d sold my wheels! We now had the problem of getting stock across the
city centre without a vehicle. So along came the handy 30kg suitcase I’d used
to bring all my worldy belongings back from China in! Now if anyone can remember
the Autumn/Winter of 2010 you’ll remember it was particularly cold. So spending
whole days out in this weather and then dragging this suitcase full of T-shirts
Del Boy style across the city taking 45 mins at a time certainly tested my
young entrepreneurial resolve - especially on the day the wheel decided to fall
off and I had to drag the suitcase back to Mabboo HQ!
Fortunately we landed a chalet on Bristol’s first ever
Christmas market showcasing Bristol based businesses so we had a fixed presence
for the rest of the Christmas period so it was great to be out there selling
and finding out more about our customers regardless of the snow!
In the New Year we became involved with UWE Ventures a
shared business start-up space and this led us to being involved in their
business competition the Biz idea. We came 2nd in the overall competition
netting £2500 as well as securing use of the UWE Business space for a year.
Unfortunately
at the end of September due to funding cuts the space closed. Below is a
(slightly blurry blame the beer) photo from the last night and some of the many
start-up businesses and business support advisors that operated in the space. Special thanks to Paul, Jill and Maz.
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For the last two summers we’ve tried hard to get the Mabboo brand out there to the masses across the length and breadth of the country at various festivals and events.
The summer also brought Mabboo’s first ever TV appearance.
From thousands of applicants we were selected to appear on a new Sky 1 business
show called ‘The Angel’ a cross between Dragon’s Den and the Apprentice in
which we competed for 100k of investment. The show was fronted by
billionaire businessman John Caudwell and presented by the lovely Amanda Byram
of Total Wipeout fame. We won’t spoil
what happened but you can now watch highlights now, and extended highlights will be available soon on our youtube channel.
So what does the future now hold for Mabboo. Well we’re
excited to announce that we’re working on being the first ever company to bring
a new version of bamboo clothing to the UK. This new bamboo fabric is
softer and even more sustainable-through the new manufacturing process 99% of
the organic compound used to break the bamboo down we are now able to recycle,
recover and reuse, making what we believe to be the world’s most sustainable
fabric. Here’s a sneaky look of one of incredibly soft samples of the new
bamboo fabric.
Although we started with Bamboo clothing the vision for
Mabboo has always been to create the very best sustainable products made of Bamboo,
so we have now decided now's the time to start expanding our range. On the 15th of
October samples arrived of our very first Bamboo iPhone and iPad cover samples.
Of course there are countless people who’ve been involved in
the Mabboo story so far. However some special
mentions have to go out to Matt C Stokes our Creative Director and our supplier Liu Bin and
his family for all their hard work for the past 2 years and beyond.
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Of course the Mabboo story could also not
continue without you, our customers, and your continued support so THANK YOU!
