Container Day. Groundhog Style.

Oh gosh, how much do I suck at keeping this blog up to date! Feel free to not answer that, but here I am now, tadaa!

Hamish got home a week or two ago after spending SEVEN LONG WEEKS in Asia overseeing production runs.

We are now flat tack in Brisbane unloading said products out of their 40 foot container which arrived late yesterday afternoon. I think by this time tomorrow night it will all be in the warehouse. That which hasn’t already been shipped out that is, Hamish has been doing the heavy lifting and I’ve been doing the filling of preorders and sending it back out the door again.

And then there’s been all the lovelies schlepping over here to pick up their bulk orders. We love putting faces to the names we see on our invoices all the time It’s a pity we’re doing it at a time when we are looking our sweaty bedraggled grime covered worst and in such a rush we can hardly string a sentence together, but lovely none the less

But here’s the good news for you – Hamish flies out to NZ to repeat the process at the crack of dawn on Sunday morning. For me that means we have ONE more day to get this sorted before I’m in it up to my eyeballs on my own again. Ack. Noooo. Not that I envy his end of the bargain either, poor Hamish. BUT! For you! That means it’s nearly your turn Lots and lots of fluffy goodness on it’s way to Tauranga ready to wing it’s way all over the country.

One Hamish + one Sarah + one 7 year old child labourer ÷ 2 days before Hamish flies to NZ = 13 tonnes of new stock just backing in.
READY, SET, GO.

Our oh so very kiwi truck driver stopped for a quick yarn with the fellow displaced kiwis, and then – Into It!

Helpful. Yes.

Very obscenely late on the first night.

Late dinner break tonight (night two).
(who remembers the GreenBean baby?
That’s him up there scoffing pizza! No way! Yes way!)

Just now, calling it quits for night two. Can’t see the back wall yet, but I know it’s there somewhere!

PUL of an evening.

Our PUL has been laminated!!!! And is now setting, ready to be packed.

That takes some waiting, so Hamish just went on the Suzhou Ferris Wheel – 120m tall, takes 20 minutes to complete one rotation!

(I just fed kids, supervised homework & am attempting to wrangle them into bed. Hmmm… jealous much )

The speel -
Hamish is in Asia at our chosen factory to be physically present to quality control the production of our PUL in person while it is in production, and give the final sign off prior to shipping. Our sample production run is 1,000 metres of White PUL, most of which has already been presold to our bulk WAHMs.

It:

1- Feels very similar – if not difficult to tell the difference – to the feel of the old Fabrite PUL.

2- Is more durable than the old Fabrite PUL. From our testing and development so far it has lasted through over 300 hot washes and 70 hot dryer cycles. This far exceeds any other product we have tested, including the original Fabrite and the “new Fabrite company” PULs, both of which have failed during our testing, while our new PUL samples are still going strong.

3- Is 210cm wide rather than the PUL norm of 150cm wide. 40% wider can mean increases in yield of up to 60% per linear meter due to an overall wider product. Factor the extra width into the equation as to price, not only in square meters delivered, but also how much yield that will deliver to you.

Halfway: Better than a kick in the pants.

Wash 110!

110 hot washes down, 90 hot washes to go. Plus hot dries of course… It’s rather laborious but we’re pleased with some of what we’re seeing so far, and at the end of this part of the process, we’ll be one big step closer to our new PUL supplier. Yay that!

And in the meantime, if nothing else, at least we’re keeping the detergent industry in business

1,310 odds and ends just gone live

1,310 new listings live now in the Odds and Ends section!
That cleans us right out of odds and ends, with no more to be listed until new shipments of fabric arrive next year

When the piles start closing in on us…

they’re folded, labelled and listed, with crates of odds and ends tucked in every nook and cranny, under shelves

In walkways

And all over the show

They’re priced to clear because we can’t wait to get them out of here!

Pre-Christmas Sale On Now

From now until 10pm Saturday 27th November, we have the following items on sale:

30% off HEMP FLEECE

30% off CLEAR ELASTIC

30% off MICROFIBRE INSERTS

30% off COLOURED FOE (NOT MATT OR WHITE)

20% off Coloured Suedecloth (Not White)

20% off Coloured Hook & Loop (Not White or Black)

5% off MARKERS, CUTTERS, & THREAD

5% off COTTON VELOUR

5% off ENTIRE SNAP SECTION including PRESSES / DIE SETS

Enjoy

A few photos.

For the first week of his trip I hadn’t had a photo from Hamish yet and was nagging him to start sending them through. “I just want one a day, send me one a day” I asked him.

The next morning, I woke up to 170 photos, 336MB worth.

Many were very interesting – the inside of factories, people, places, products. However a somewhat alarming number were of the hotel’s electronic toilet with remote control. Duly impressed

This morning there was another big bunch. So, I thought I better share a couple.

Outside one of the factories he’s visited, a very familiar site – vege garden for staff’s onsite meals. He says almost all of the factories have vege gardens squeezed in wherever there’s a spare patch of dirt. Awesome!

KAM, where we get our snaps, isn’t a factory, it’s a mini-city!

And on the left hand side of this photo of the main office, where all the office girls are working, is a fish pond.

Uh, with a chopped up goat sitting randomly next to it. Glad it was him not me on that particular visit – vege gardens in the workplace are more my thing!

The famous Textile Fair is so big it is in two separate buildings – with a covered bridge between the two.

Too shopped-out to walk over a bridge? Drive a funky wee car over it instead then

Fabric-fabric-fabric-fabric-fabric

Plastic-plastic-plastic-plastic-plastic-plastic

Snap press-Snap press-Snap press-Snap press

FOE-FOE-FOE-FOE-FOE-FOE

“A warm welcome to the gusets from all countries and regions attending the 108th session of China Import and Export Fair”. Misspellings are that much more awesome when the sign is 12 foot wide aren’t they? But the sentiment is nice nonetheless.

And he certainly has been made welcome. A smooth trip so far

The original.

Today was the birthday of the original Green Bean – the inspiration for starting the business, and it’s namesake.

Way back when, he used to toddle around the packing bench,

and now he’s a big 7 year old who helps unload containers! Freaky

Canton Textile Fair

Hamish is off to the Canton Textile Fair today. This fair is so huge and such a big deal for so many suppliers, that I don’t even know how to begin to describe it. So I just won’t, and assume that if you’re likely to be excited about the Canton Textile Fair, you probably already know all about it. And are possibly about as jealous as me right now

He’s not been able to send any photos yet because his email isn’t working, but a quick phone call and msn chat informs me that all is well, the weather is smoggy, and the supplier who was showing him around last night introduced him to johnnie walker mixed into lemon tea. Good to know.

Yesterday he checked out some automatic snap presses that are apparently awesome, watched them and snaps themselves being made, and did other snappy stuff. Now he’s in Canton headed to the fair – actually he’d just arrived at it about 15 minutes ago, so he’ll be rolling in fluffy goodness as we speak. Or actually, that would probably just be me. And this evening he’s flying again, on his way to check out… ok I forgot that part. Something else.

Meanwhile, here in the land of same old same, there’s orders to dispatch! Back to it

Leaving, on a jet plane…

Hamish left this morning for three weeks in Asia. To hopefully finalise PUL arrangments.

Yay for PUL!
Boo for me, running things on the home and business front alone for a while again.
Here’s hoping this trip makes it, and everything gone before, totally worth it!

Yes I admit, it’s an old photo from a previous abandonment business trip. It’s the lack of curls that gives it away But he’s taken the camera with him, so he can keep us posted bloggy styles, on what he’s seeing and how it’s going. Should be interesting! Watch this space

New widths of hook & loop, almost here.

We have new, wider hook and loop now in store! We’ll hopefully get to list this tomorrow, so if wide hook and loop is your thing, watch this space