Sold!

Garry and I have sold Artiwood. This momentous change comes less than a month after celebrating the eleventh anniversary of its acquisition in June 2015. The deal has been a while in the making. On Tuesday last week, we signed the sale contract after months of due diligence, negotiations, and transition planning. The news is already online, and the congratulatory messages are pouring in.

We’re now deep into ownership transition activities, transferring assets and bringing the new owner’s up to speed on the business and its day-to-day operation. We’ll then continue to be involved on a contract basis in the months ahead. However, we're still on the hook for our showroom office lease until it's eventually re-let by the landlord.  We're hoping to clear this final hurdle before Christmas.

As with all business negotiations, the last few months have had their highs and lows. It’s certainly been a stressful time as unforeseen hurdles and unexpected delays kept us on our toes. Now that the deal is done, it’s hard to believe that our decade-long career in the toy industry is drawing to a close. So many memories. So many milestones.

Looking ahead, I have no idea what comes next. As my sixty-first birthday approaches, I’m contemplating a transition to retirement. Although I'm not sure what that really means. For now, Garry and I are working through our short-term contractual commitments before embarking on life's next adventure. There’s talk of renovations, plenty of travel and spending more time with other recently retired friends.

UPDATE: 29 July

The new owner’s first payment landed in our bank account this evening. It’s the first of three transactions. The sale of our business finally feels real.

Spielwarenmesse in the snow

We’ve completed another whirlwind week in Nuremberg. It’s hard to believe this is the ninth time we’ve attended the Spielwarenmesse tradeshow. The highlight of this year’s event was the weather. The city experienced a near-record snowfall last Sunday, just two days before the show opened. It's hard to believe that two days earlier we'd been snorkelling in the Caribbean Sea.

Depending on who you asked, it was either the heaviest fall in two decades or the heaviest in three decades. Regardless, we arrived in Nuremberg to find almost 30 centimetres of snow on the ground. We’ve never enjoyed permanent snow cover in all the years we’ve been visiting Nuremberg.

This year, we flew Mitchell to Germany to join us for the first time.  It was an opportunity for him to explore the industry and meet our suppliers in person. We flew him into Nuremberg on Saturday afternoon so that he’d have at least two full days to acclimatise and recover from jet lag. He’s never seen snow before. As a result, he was delighted when it began falling on Sunday morning and didn't stop until the following morning. 

As happens every year, our suppliers wined and dined us again. Mitch got to experience the decadence of the Contiki Bar on Tuesday evening, followed by Cucina Italiana on Wednesday, and the infamous Pork Knuckle Dungeon on Thursday (Tucher Mautkeller Cellar is the official name). He was then invited to a European league football match on Friday night, another bucket list moment for him. I guess we’re now his favourite uncles for another month.

This evening we flew into London. Our final hours in Germany involved another hair raising close call with our flight. More about that adventure another time. We have more business meetings over the next week before we head for home. It’s been a long time on the road. 

A week of 10,000 daily steps and endless nights on the town in Nuremberg has definitely taken its toll. I’ve got a nasty chest infection, and it looks like Garry has finally caught it as well. I got my flu and COVID shots before we left Sydney, so hopefully that’s helped with some of the Northern Hemisphere’s winter ailments.

Out for the afternoon

Garry and I hosted our annual staff Christmas lunch yesterday. This year, we dined at Nour in Surry Hills. I pre-ordered the slow-cooked lamb shoulder and had a glass of champagne ready and waiting for us upon arrival. Garry, Mitch and I then continued on to the Clock Hotel for a beer before heading for Bar Cleveland to play pool and down a few more beers. I headed home about 9:30pm, while Garry went next door to continue the party with our neighbour, Nat. The food was superb and a relaxing way to finish what could only be described as another challenging year for our business.

Tradeshow time

I've just returned from a week exhibiting at the annual Reed Gift Fair in Melbourne. It's been exactly ten years since Garry and I first flew south to exhibit at our first tradeshow as Artiwood's new owners. This year's event was the best we've experienced since COVID put a stop to live events. I can't recall being on my feet so much as we were this year. Hopefully, the interest in our brands is reflected by healthy sales in the months ahead.

Weatherwise, it was a good week to be away from Sydney. As of yesterday, the city's experienced its wettest start to August in more than 168 years of records. Meanwhile, in Melbourne, we enjoyed partly sunny skies and dry conditions all week. Once again, Garry didn't attend the event. We decided after experimenting with three staff last August, there was little value in his attending again. I doubt he'll participate in another tradeshow again.

Last Friday, I took the team for dinner to celebrate Rhonda's birthday. Last year, we booked a table at Doju, a Korean Fusion restaurant, for her birthday. This year, we continued the Asian theme by dining at Komeyui, a Japanese fine dining restaurant. I booked the team a seat at the chef's table, where we watched the chef prepare and present each dish in front of us.

The rest of the week was less adventurous. I caught a taxi to St Kilda for cocktails with a business contact at the Village Belle Hotel. I also walked along the riverfront one evening to soak up the neon lights of Melbourne's Lightscape satellite event outside the Melbourne Convention Centre.

Bangkok countdown

We're counting down to our next business trip. Eight days from now we're off to Thailand. We're visiting one of our largest suppliers and reviewing their factory near Bangkok. The last time we inspected their operation was 2016. 

I was seriously ill during our trip nine years ago. While we enjoyed an awesome view of the Chao Phraya River from our hotel room (see the photo posted), sadly, I spent much of my time in bed with a fever and chest infection. When we arrived back in Sydney, I took to my bed and slept for almost three days.

Hopefully we'll have better luck this time despite the tragic aftermath of this week's earthquake in neighbouring Myanmar. However, before we fly, my brother and sister-in-law are dropping by for a week. We have lots of fun activities planned for Matt and Shelley. Watch this space.

Toy Fair 2025

It’s been ten years since Garry and I saw Artiwood, our current business, for the very first time. We met with John Daniels, the former owner, at the Australian Gift & Home Association (AGHA) Home & Giving Fair in February 2015. He’d put his business on the market with a broker just ten days earlier.

We met John in the Dome, an exhibition building at the Sydney Showgrounds in Homebush. This let us to see the business in action, review its products, and meet its staff and customers. It was also the first time John had exhibited using a new custom-built. You can see an image of it below.

The new stand certainly made a strong impression. It professionally presented the brands Artiwood supported and gave us a sense of their potential. After meeting with John, we prepared a business case and made him an offer. It took another 3.5 months to complete due diligence, raise bank financing and complete the transaction.

It’ll be ten years next month since I flew to Mullumbimby, via Coolangatta, to meet John again. I spent four days touring his Brisbane-based 3PL warehouse and conducting more due diligence. John hosted me in a small apartment he owned in town. He also took me to Byron Bay and Brunswick Heads during my stay. It was a superb introduction to the Northern Rivers region.

Fast forward a decade. This week, Artiwood exhibited at the annual Australian Toy Association’s Toy Fair in Melbourne. This year we’ve invested in a new custom stand. It’s the smallest stand we’ve had at this event, and the smallest we’ve built for a major event. Attendees no longer want lengthy meetings on site or want to order at the show. As a result, there’s less need to showcase our entire catalogue or use a meeting table.

Once again Garry didn't fly to Melbourne. He opted out of the Reed Gift Fair last August to spend more time with his Mum in her final months. Although, after last year's Toy Fair, we'd decided four people on the stand were unnecessary. We coped fine with three of us in August - and again this week. If truth be told, I suspect Garry will never attend another Melbourne trade show.

Sadly, trade shows are no longer a primary marketing tool. As a result, we’re progressively trimming our show budget and spending our marketing dollars elsewhere. However, the week’s event still felt like a watershed experience. We scheduled meetings throughout the week with key accounts and strategic prospects. Collectively, these engagements felt more productive and more progressive than many of the interactions we’ve had previously.

Trading conditions are tough at the moment. Australian retailers are enduring another year of what’s technically a retail recession (at least on a per capita basis). If the quality of this week’s engagements is any indication, then maybe we’re almost through the worst. I’m equally encouraged to see our customer base quietly evolving over time.

What a difference a decade makes

We’re back from another year walking the halls of Spielwarenmesse in Nuremberg. It’s hard to believe we’ve been going to Germany every year since 2016 (COVID hiatus aside). This year’s event was as busy as ever. According to our iPhone apps we’ve walked more than 75,000 steps over six days.

Sadly, we missed out on our First-class points upgrade coming home this year. However, we did secure the first two bulkhead seats in Business that offered extra leg room, so all wasn’t lost. This year we caught a late flight from Frankfurt to London and stopped overnight before continuing to Sydney.

We made the most of our stopover with a day trip to Windsor. The day dawned with clear skies and sunshine making it ideal for some outdoor activity. We arrived in Windsor shortly after noon. We walked along the Thames before embarking on The Long Walk. This is an arrow-straight path extending 4.2 km from Windsor Castle to Snow Hill, home to an elevated statue of George the Third on horseback. 

The walk took more than an hour each way. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people were doing the same thing. The statue on Snow Hill was impressive up close. The monumental bronze statue is larger than life size, about 7.9 metres high, and is mounted on a rugged stone plinth 8 metres high. The view from its base, looking back to the castle, is impressive, to say the least.

However, one unforgettable sight captured our attention. Windsor Castle lies directly under the flight path of Heathrow's southern runway. As a result, low-flying passenger jets descend like clockwork over the northern end of The Long Walk every few minutes. The stream of aircraft was unrelenting. I've read that up to 37 flights an hour pass overhead. I'm surprised the Queen enjoyed staying at Windsor as much as she did.

Once we’d completed the walk, we returned to London. With an hour to fill before heading to Heathrow, we decided to try out Vagabond, a wine bar on the Grand Canal we’d spotted the previous week. We used the bar's quirky self-vending wine wall to toast another successful business trip. We've returned home with two new brands and a greater appreciation for everything we’ve achieved over the last decade.

We’ve developed some wonderful friendships with people from around the world. Our suppliers have become friends, and we regularly encounter people at the show and the airport who treat us with enormous respect. We’ve certainly become known as established players in our own right.

This was evident on our final night in Nuremberg when we organized dinner for an eclectic group of industry colleagues. Our table included a supplier’s trade show team, distributors of similar brands and other industry contacts. Nations represented at dinner included Australia, The Netherlands, Canada, the UK, Belgium, and Italy (plus two expats, one from New Zealand and one from Ireland).

It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years this month since we met John Daniels, Artiwood’s former owner, and decided to buy his business. What a ride it's been!

Moroccan scrub down

Our final day in Marrakesh was spent pampering ourselves at a traditional Moroccan Hammam. These spa venues are everywhere. In the West, they’re what we'd typically call Turkish Baths. Garry and I booked a classic hammam session followed by an hour-long massage. 

Two young women managed our hammam experience in a private treatment room clad in dark blue ceramic tiles from floor to ceiling. What followed was a steamy flurry of showers, scrubs, buckets of water, and plenty of giggling. The venue gave us a pair of disposal shorts for the session, which proved invaluable as we were repeatedly whisked from a heated tiled treatment bench (cushioned by a nylon-clad foam pad) to a shower and back.

A typical hammam session starts with a general wash-down in a tiled room, followed by a steam room sauna. The experience continues with a rigorous exfoliation scrub, plus a head-to-toe mineral clay treatment. Finally, everything is rinsed off and you’re given a final argan oil rubdown. The layers of skin we watched flowing down the drain after our exfoliating scrub was alarming, to say the least.

Our massages proved equally therapeutic. While they weren’t exceptionally firm, we both fell asleep during the session. I guess you know you’re relaxed when your own snoring wakes you mid-treatment.

We then returned to our favourite rooftop bar at Shtatto for a late lunch and a final look across the jumbled medina rooftops. The Atlas Mountains gave us a final showing despite the ubiquitous desert haze. It was the perfect way to finish a truly memorable experience. Although I must admit I think I’m finally showing my age. The dirt, chaos and ramshackle sights were a little exhausting at times. The novelty of adventure travel seems to have worn thin after all these years.

Our flight back to London passed without incident. Although we almost caught the wrong train from Gatwick into town. We finally made it into our Paddington-based Airbnb shortly before midnight. Garry found this venue a few months back. It was a recently renovated flat spread over four levels on a triangular footprint less than 500 metres from Paddington Station and a similar distance from Edgware Road in the opposite direction. 

When we opened a curtain the following morning, we discovered it sat directly over the District Line tube tracks. The track briefly passed through an open cut before disappearing under our building and passing under Praed Street. However, triple-glazed windows ensured that a little muted rumbling was all we noticed whenever trains passed below us.

Unfortunately, Garry woke in poor health. He spent the next three days in bed with a fever while I made the daily trek to Olympia for the London Toy Fair. I met with suppliers, walked the halls, and renewed old acquaintances. One supplier, Indigo Jamm, also took me for dinner one evening.