Goose Island Enjoys 12 Months of Continued Growth and Success

We are delighted to report that from January to December 2019, Goose Island has continued to enjoy a year of continued growth and success across both the wholesale and retail sectors. We were delighted to celebrate the one-year anniversary of our new location Llandeilo store which opened at the end of 2018 when we relocated.  And from a wholesale perspective, we have continued to grow our client base across the UK including opening Goose Island concessions in Leekes stores across Wales and the South West.

We have also travelled regularly to Italy to source even more Italian Ranges, constantly identifying new and innovative designs to bring back to our customers.

Awards

Our reputation as an award-winning fashion company continued to grow in 2019.  In April we were the overall winners in the Welsh Independent Retails Awards 2019 in the Best Welsh Fashion and Accessory Store. Then in October, we were runners up in the Retail Business Category in the Welsh SME business awards in Cardiff. These awards honour the contributions made by SME entrepreneurs and businesses across Wales and we were very proud to be one of the shortlisted companies.

Gok Wan One-Size Fits All Roadshow

In November, we teamed up with designer Gok Wan in a roadshow to showcase one-size fits all clothing in Cardiff. The roadshow is a UK wide event with brunch, fashion and fizz on the menu as Gok Wan brought his ‘One Size Fits All ‘tour to Wales.  His aim behind these sell-out roadshows is to ‘personally dress the nation and instil a sense of body confidence in women up and down the country.’

The event was an exciting, uplifting, and inspiring experience. Guests had the opportunity to wander around a specially designed Dreamspace, a fabulous retail area, showcasing Gok’s cherry-picked array of luxury lifestyle products.  Brunch was followed by live catwalk shows including Goose Island as the clothing brand, hosted by Gok, who also shared many of his styling secrets through master classes and makeovers.

Retail Events and News

Throughout the year we have run a number of shopping evenings designed to showcase our new collections and to give customers in our loyalty scheme the chance to purchase new designs before they go in store or online.

These culminated with pre-Christmas events at both our Mumbles and Cowbridge stores.  Our Mumbles guests also enjoyed a fashion show highlighting our 2019 autumn and winter collection along with a demonstration on how to layer clothing.  This demonstration also included tips on how to wear specific Goose Island clothing with other items previously purchased from our shop and how to accessorise these outfits.   We will be holding further shopping evenings and fashion shows throughout 2020.

Taking our customer service offering to the next level, we also introduced a Personal Styling Service for customers at our Mumbles store.  This service proved extremely popular among our local ladies.  Sessions are booked in advance with our stylist, Kelly, who spends around an hour with each individual customer helping them to select styles that suit their body shape and colouring, putting together complete outfits for them.  We will be continuing this service throughout 2020 with the aim of introducing styling sessions to our other stores in due course.

Going in a totally new direction, in 2019 we also introduced Yoga and Meditation classes on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at our Mumbles store.  These are 6 week beginner and intermediate classes are run by Katie Victoria Hulland and many of our shop customers attend these classes.

Wholesale Events and News

Last year, in addition to our regular attendance at the Pure Show, for the first time we attended Harrogate Fashion Week.  Both of these shows proved very successful and we will be attending both events again this year as well as identifying other trade opportunities as they arise.

As a result of our growing reputation as a quality fashion company, we have been invited to participate in the forthcoming INDX fashion show.  INDX shows are curated specifically and exclusively for retailers within the independent sector, attracting buyers from department stores, shops and boutiques all across the UK and Ireland. They are designed to meet the diverse requirements of today’s indies, providing a bespoke buying experience, a focused exhibitor selection in a professional, friendly and relaxed environment.

We have also continued to run our highly successful roadshows across the South West of England, attracting customers from a range of independents as well as department stores.  Our aim is to extend the reach of these shows to other areas of the UK over the coming years.

Future Plans

In December 2019, we launched a new transitional fashion range to bridge the gap between December and the Spring months.  Our aim is to offer customers fresh and exciting designs that can we worn across the seasons.  Wholesale customers were able to pre-order from this transitional collection before Christmas and all new designs will be in store and available to purchase on line from mid-January.

By popular request, we are also adding new furniture ranges from Bali into our shops later this month.