Attire Accessories -Jul/Aug 2018 (Issue 71)

94 ATTIRE Alexander Thurlow Co. +44 (0)208 766 6466 alexanderthurlow.com What trade shows do you attend, and which ones work best for you? We currently show at quite a number: Top Drawer, Spring Fair, Harrogate Home & Gift and Autumn Fair. We were also doing a couple of the London shows but have recently dropped these because of the poor attendance. To be honest, all the shows are suffering at the moment through no fault of the organisers. However, with the high street struggling and the way of trading changing, this is to be expected. Out of all of the shows, Harrogate is the best. Not only in terms of business done and the length of time we have been showing but also because of the wonderful atmosphere the town seems to produce every year. When was the website launched, and how does it support the business? We launched our website around 15 years ago, and it has become an important and integral part of our business. It allows the customer to have complete choice of what is currently in stock with next-day delivery. What have been the key milestones in the business? The key milestones were supplying the wholesale fashion jewellery market and high street retailers in the eighties.This gave the company a great foundation to grow to where we are now. Other milestones include changing the direction of our business in 2007 to get into the gift, boutique and destination retail business. How do you view the current market, and what trends – in both product and business – do you see emerging over the current months? The current market for fashion jewellery is challenging – there is no denying that. So the challenge is finding something a little different from the mainstream. We are looking to bring in plenty of colour to our jewellery with a different finish to the norm. We can only hope that jewellery can recover, which it will, but the normal high street route is changing. And it all revolves around social media. What are your future plans for the business? We are continually having to review the direction of the company because the market is evolving faster than ever before. Hopefully I can persuade the next generation of Thurlows to continue what has been a highly successful and rewarding journey. A

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