In 2019, just before the world went mad, Jack and I were invited to Buckingham Palace to receive an incredibly prestigious business award – a Queen’s Award for International Trade. This award recognises exceptional growth in overseas sales and we were so excited to receive it. The award ‘lasts’ for five years, and after this, you can no longer use the logo or call yourself an award recipient.
A few weeks ago, just as we were removing the Queen’s Award logos from our email signatures, we received the incredible news that we are to receive the award again, now of course a King’s Award.
Selling our products overseas has been part of our story since the very beginning of Wrendale. We took an order from our Australian distributor at our second ever trade show and we have worked hard to make sure that we can supply our customers all over the world. We get so many messages from excited friends when they spot our product in a shop when they are on holiday and I’ll never forget sitting in a café in Austria and spotting a beautiful Wrendale window display in the shop opposite. We now supply customers in over 40 different countries and one achievement that I feel proud of is that we have stockists in every US state – including Alaska and Hawaii! I feel very grateful that my artwork can be shared all over the world and I have my amazing team to thank for that.
As if that wasn’t enough, a week later, I headed down to London with my colleagues Charlotte and Vicky from our design team to attend the annual Gift of the Year awards. These awards are very prestigious in our industry and are always well attended by our friends and colleagues from across the giftware sector. We had been named as a finalist in two categories and we were thrilled to discover that we had won an award for our pet gift range.
However, the night wasn’t over and once all of the trophies had been given out, it was time to announce the winner of the final award – the Outstanding Achievement Award. There isn’t a shortlist for this award, and it only becomes clear who the winner is as the biography is read out. I could scarcely believe it when I started to recognise what was being said. I can’t overstate how overwhelmed I felt when I realised that I had won this award. This award has been won in the past by some incredible and inspirational people – I am astonished and delighted to have been recognised in this way.
As always, I feel slightly guilty accepting these awards as I feel it puts too much of the credit on to my shoulders – I have a brilliant and supportive team around me and we wouldn’t achieve anything without them. We are already planning a summer party to celebrate these successes – they belong to the whole Wrendale family!
Click here to take a closer look at our award-winning pet collection.