Myakka Make the Finals

Family-run Somerset based furniture company, Myakka has qualified for the finals for a prestigious national business award. The ECMOD Awards received Myakka’s entry recently and have recognised their dedication to retailing by shortlisting them in the Business to Consumer Homewares category.

 

With many retailers suffering from the economic downturn, awards ceremony’s such as these offer recognition to companies that are performing well. “We are thrilled to be short listed for the award and look forward to attending the awards ceremony on Thursday 2nd April,” explains Georgie Hopkins, director of Myakka.

 

 

The winners will be revealed on 2nd April at the ECMOD Awards Gala Dinner, taking place at The Royal Lancaster Hotel in London. TV presenter, Dermot Murnaghan will announce the winner of each category and present the trophies in front of a capacity crowd.

 

Founded in 1990, ECMOD (which stands for European Catalogue and Mail Order Days) is synonymous with high level information sharing, networking, and supplier sourcing for businesses engaged in catalogue, online and multi-channel retailing.

 

“We always try to provide the best service to our customers whilst sourcing our products ethically and ensuring that quality is of the highest standard. While we do this because we feel it is the right thing to do, it is really fantastic to receive outside recognition for all the hard work and dedication our entire team put into Myakka on a daily basis,” adds Georgie.

 

This summer Myakka will celebrate its 10th anniversary in retailing with some fantastic summer offers on a selection of their beautiful fair trade furniture.

 

Myakka hold a database of over 25,000 people throughout the UK that register to receive information about the latest offers and new product developments. Those individuals who are also interested to receive such news (and to find out if Myakka win the awards!) visit www.myakka.co.uk.

 

Grand Myakka Designs

This year, Myakka will be exhibiting at the Grand Designs show between 25th April to 4th May to give shoppers a chance to visit them and their products.

 

Myakka has had a superb start to the year with a record breaking January sale, donating £5,000 to an Indian school project and visiting overseas suppliers to discuss new designs, materials and fashions for forthcoming seasons.

 

“It is a very exciting time for our company and for fair trade,” explains Georgie Hopkins, director for Myakka based in Wincanton, Somerset. “We try to source as many products as possible through fair trade while not compromising on quality, design or finish. We have so many beautifully made products including our ranges of furniture and hope that the show will offer shoppers the chance to come and meet us and decide which pieces of furniture would be perfect for their home.”

 

Myakka’s major growth has been through online sales of their unique dining room tables, beds, chest of drawers, cabinets, chairs and coffee tables, as well as a range of soft furnishings to complement. Yet Georgie is aware that many shoppers like to see such items in ‘the flesh’ before making their purchasing decision.

 

“We decided to exhibit at this year’s Grand Design’s show to give visitors a chance to touch and feel our products to see the quality for themselves,” says Georgie.

 

Myakka will be taking a whole range of products to the Grand Design’s show and individuals can find them on stand L98 in the Interior Section. For further information or to register for Myakka’s promotional offers newsletter visit www.myakka.co.uk.  Visitors can also receive a £6 saving on each Grand Design ticket by quoting the promo code ‘EXHIB’ when ordering their tickets in advance, visit www.granddesignslive.com or call 0871 230 5577.

 

Grand Designs Live 2009 - www.granddesignslive.com

Myakka goes Bananas!

Family-run furniture company, Myakka joined in with the biggest worldwide banana-eating event between 6th and 7th of March to declare their support for fair trade.

 

With a selection of banana recipes available through www.fairtrade.org.uk, many of the thousands of people participating world-wide had some fun making everything from banana milkshakes to pancakes!

 

The Myakka team gathered together in the afternoon on the 6th March to eat their fair trade banana’s in support of the fair trade movement. Held annually, this event aims to raise awareness of the importance of considering where our food and products come from, where they are made and whether the people who made them (or picked them!) were paid a fair wage.

 

“This is just another example of a great event that anyone can easily get involved with to help support and raise more awareness of fair trade,” explains Georgie Hopkins, director of Myakka.

 

Bananas are the most popular fruit in the world with over £10billion per year being spent on them. They are harvested all year round and ripen best off the plant. Wild banana’s originated in Asia and have been cultivated for over 4,000 years.

 

There are 57 certified producer groups in ten countries of Latin America, the Caribbean and West Africa supplying fair trade bananas to twenty countries in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. Fair trade minimum prices are calculated to at least cover average local costs of production - this price can be over double what producers would normally receive.

 

Myakka certainly does its bit for the fair trade movement and experienced record sales in the first six weeks of 2009 almost emptying their warehouse of beautiful fair trade furniture. With more than 10 container loads of fair trade furniture on its way to the UK at the moment to restock their busy warehouse, customers can be assured that their hard earned money will not only benefit themselves through the beautiful furniture, but the artisan producers too.

 

“The deliveries will be arriving soon and within the next few weeks we’ll be fully restocked on most large furniture items. In the meantime, we still have plenty for customers to buy in-store or online,” says Georgie Hopkins.

 

Fairtrade bananas were launched in 1994, and now one in four bananas sold in the UK is fair trade. If you are interested to learn more about fair trade or interesting facts about bananas including films and producer case studies visit www.fairtrade.org.uk/gobananas