Next up in our 'Meet the Wrendale family' series we have Jack, our fabulous managing director! We talked to Jack about what his job role involves, his favourite memories from working at Wrendale, and found out some of his favourite paintings...
I grew up on a farm and studied Mechanical Engineering at university, so I'm drawn to problem solving and practical aspects of the business.
The business has always been based on Hannah’s vision in terms of the style, quality and types of products we produce, my role has always been to help make that happen. It’s funny, my 95 year old grandma often asks me what I do, and it’s sometimes difficult to explain my role to her so this might help.
Over the years we’ve built a fantastic team that do a wonderful job and really care about the success of the business so my role largely centres around supporting them. The most important thing is for them to understand what success looks like and then it’s about supporting them to achieve it. The other side I keep a careful eye on is the finances and cashflow. It’s a critical aspect of the business that I’ve always been drawn to.
I've always loved to fly, so if I could be any animal it would have to be an eagle.
I think the excitement of getting our very first orders from shops has to be up there. We’d just spent over £6,000 on printing a load of cards so there was a lot riding on it. I remember going to the cotswolds and driving from shop to shop. Hannah would go in and do the selling and I watched the children (they were 3 and 4 at the time). We came away with over £1000 in orders over two days. I remember we both came to the realisation that the business had legs and might even succeed!
Probably socks and soap as I’m always running out of both! We've just introduced three new designs to our men's sock collection, including one featuring a Kingfisher. I saw a Kingfisher for the first time around two years ago and thought it was really cool, so I've got my fingers crossed for a pair of those.
I have a few. I’m drawn to the hare brained large coffee mug with the green background, I have to fight with my eldest daughter for it as she loves it too.
I love one of Hannah’s early designs of a guinea fowl. I think it was the look of utter shock in its face that just makes me laugh. I really don’t know how she does it.
My top one is of Claude my toy poodle. Hannah painted him 6 months before he passed away. He was such a character and was always by my side. She has really captured him and the way he would look at me.
HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT WILD WRENDALE?
Wild Wrendale is a rewilding project set up by Hannah and Jack pushing boundaries to bring back lost species and habitats on their farm in rural Lincolnshire. You can keep up to date with any Wild Wrendale progress on social media, or you can click here to visit the website.