Licensed to Charm’s Maggie Calmels on adopting new ways of working, launching a fresh Miffy range and new opportunities.
All this week, LicensingSource.net will be catching up with a selection of licensees across key categories to ask them how their businesses have been impacted by COVID-19 and what conversations the industry needs to be having to aid recovery.
Today: Maggie Calmels, owner, Licensed to Charm.
“We had to adopt new ways of working. Two of our small team are ‘sheltered’ so we shut our office/workshop/shop and are all working from home, and actually quite liking aspects of it.
The biggest challenge has been getting our jewellery made – we are committed to UK manufacture and work with small suppliers and artisans, many of which had to close. Silver casting and gold plating have been the slowest to come back and are still not running at capacity so the lead times are longer.
Conversations [with partners] are ongoing. We’ve had a very welcome contract extension agreed on due to the circumstances. Now we have new deals under discussion and have recently managed a successful ‘virtual’ launch of our Miffy jewellery range with the help of our social team and the licensor.
We have some new ecommerce partners, and indie stores are opening so we are now actively looking for wholesale opportunities. A bit more flexibility on contract length and sales channels would also be welcome.”
This feature originally appeared in the summer 2020 edition of Licensing Source Book. To read the full publication, click on this link.
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