Europe

Barry has just got back from a trip to Europe. While we were enjoying balmy early summer weather he was shivering in 2 and 3 degrees Celsius. To make it worse the airlines lost his bags not once but twice. When you are only away from New Zealand for two weeks, you spend four of those days in the air. The lost bags took two days to be recovered both times which meant that, of the days on the ground, 40% were spent without luggage. So he was shivering from the cold and a lack of warm sweaters.
Putting travelling frustrations aside the trip was very successful. The highlight was undoubtedly seeing Toi in store in The Netherlands. Arnold and Erny at Ideavelop took Barry around retailers all over the country. The retail stand that we had designed and prototyped in New Zealand had been produced in the Czech Republic and put in store, loaded with stock. Barry described it as being a real thrill to see Toi garments and display material looking so exciting and appealing in these outdoor stores.
As always a picture speaks louder than words so here are a couple of photos Barry has taken.
The Italian leg of the trip was also successful. Nicole from NZ Trade and Enterprise had set up a great programme of meetings for Barry. These meetings were with distributors and agents who were interested in selling Toi in Italy. There is still lots more work to be done but we are on our way to being in retail stores in Italy in 2009.
Yesterday I took the next step in this blogging journey and emailed a whole lot of friends and family to let them know that the blog exists and invite them to read it and make comments, suggestions etc. I have already taken up some of the suggestions and would love to hear from anyone else who has an opinion. I still have a lot to learn about blogging but I am enjoying the challenge.