The renovation is fully underway! Setting up our Gillian Arnold boutique in Post House Wynd, Darlington has been rather demanding, moving our entire shop contents and production from Bishop Auckland has been extremely hard and time consuming. However, we finally can see progress being made in the boutique and we are all getting excited to see the end result. Which seems to be in the near ‘sort of’ future.
One of the hardest parts to our challenge, logistics. Migrating our entire unit while still running the business. We had very little time to get everything working again, but we were still doing trade show orders as we were closing and had one day to produce the products. That is dedication!
Although we do have an entrance to the shop that we are currently using, we have huge plans to design the whole ground floor into a charming and stylish boutique which explodes with bold designs, bringing botanical Britain, picked pressed and printed, to Darlington town centre.
So far…
We are right in the middle of our shop renovation; building walls from scratch, putting down flooring and securing the electrics. We have so much to think about in order to get the shop done, such as: fittings and furniture, colour matching (we can’t decide on teal or terracotta). Our debate at the moment is on the colour of the front of the shop, as people have different perceptions on how the front of a shop looks. We do not want to get it wrong! Got any suggestions?
We are hopeful that in all, our shop will be finished within the next couple of months. For some of us, it’s the first time using these kind of power tools. We’re getting there.
How do our employees feel about moving into this new space?
“Now we’re on a busier street with more hustle and bustle. It’s wonderful to have space to spread our wings and create a working environment for what we need.” – Gillian
“I’m happy to have the business back under one roof and be able to develop, which we haven’t had in our previous premises. We have the potential to grow and here is somewhere that we can put our own mark.” – Tim
“It’s a tremendous win for us so we can grow. It is exciting but definitely scary as it’s a new challenge for us, but I know we’re ready for it. We are essentially building our boutique from scratch and to see the business finally stand on its own feet, it’s great.” – Rab
“It’s generally much better being here in Darlington, not only because I live here, but it’s nice to be all working together as a company. We were separate before and we all work better as a team.” – Katie
“I’m ecstatic about our move! We will have so much better communication within our business, which is productive.” Daniel
What will moving here do for the brand as a whole?
“This is our step towards greater success. I’m excited for other people to see our work and the shop, which is taking shape every day! It’s a building site at the minute, but we’re putting in such hard work to make it into an incredible space for our customers.” – Gillian
“For us, we now have much more opportunity to develop on what we do and what we can offer. Our merchandise and display will sell our brand, giving us much more exposure. This is a prime spot in the town and we now have the chance to create more art workshops for upcoming artists.” – Tim
“It will definitely provide us with new opportunities to grow in ways other than sales; networking with other institutions around us and linking with other artists. We are beyond creating just a shop. This will be a hub for artistry in Darlington and the North East.” – Rab
“Moving here means our shop will become much busier and hopefully we’ll be known around the town. Which also means more orders!” – Katie
“We will become better known as we are in busier area and we weren’t getting recognised before. Hopefully we’ll get very popular.” – Daniel
So even though we are not completely renovated yet and all pretty, our designs still flourish in the small space we have and we’d love you to come and give us a visit!
We are at 10/11 Post House Wynd, Darlington, DL3 7LU. Come and say hi!
Thanks for reading!
