As business as a whole faces the uncertainty of the increasing cost of living, fuel and materials, preschool companies are positive that the industry will weather the storm.
When discussing the economy as a whole in this issue’s industry roundtable, the leading executives PPS spoke to were optimistic about the future, while also putting plans in place to overcome the challenges.
Jeremy Minchin, md of Hippychick, commented: “People are still going to want to buy nursery products and preschool toy and gift – we just have to be better at what we do and ensure that shops and consumers know that we are working together to keep the industry going.
“We have heard a lot of comment about minimum order values being hiked up and stock that comes to stores from EU hubs having expensive customs and clearance charges – we hold stock here in the UK, take all that pain out of it, allowing smaller orders and swift despatch so that retailers can work with smaller stock holdings themselves. We all need to help each other, and all accept that it will be hard work for the next few months and probably longer.”
Cara Sayer, founder and creator of Snoozeshade, is hopeful that the industry will emerge relatively unscathed: “We’ve been through tough times before and will always go through them. I think the difference is at the moment, we were getting back to a sense of normality post-covid and so it feels like we’ve been hit by another big wave which we need to ride.
“Some days it feels like things have gone temporarily out of control but I’m hopeful that this crisis will run its path without too much devastation.”
Elliot Bishop, ceo, Bébélephant, offered solid advice: “Let’s try and remain positive and hopeful. This is undoubtedly a difficult time for so many in our society, but it will pass and the good times will return.”
To read the full industry roundtable feature in the digital issue of Progressive Preschool magazine, simply click here.
