Happy New Year

A big thanks to everyone who reads my Dispatch and to all the fantastic clients who have continued to support us this year.

2012 was definitely a restless time at Crane Brothers. My policy this year was one of biting off as much as I could and chewing like hell so I didn't choke and as the year draws to a close and my indigestion begins to settle I feel excited about 2013.

We have had a great year, the business continues to thrive and grow in what is still a difficult retail environment that remains filled with challenges and uncertainty.

The highlights for me have been opening our showroom in Sydney, Australia and relaunching a reinvigorted Gubb & Mackie line both of which have surpassed my expectations.

Our online business continues to grow, so much so that we have leased another floor in the High Street building that houses our workroom to service the growing demands this brings with it. 

Our staff increasd by 4 this year and we have some fantastic new people working for us who all bring their own skill sets and personalites to the business. Their average age is in the mid twenties and they are all bright eyed, hard working and keen to learn and develop which allows everything we do to remain contemporary.

Those of you that know me will know that I am eternally pessimistic as well as superstitious but even having to deal with the number 13 for 365 days isn't getting me down.

It is easy to dwell on less than satisfactory results or occassions where I felt we did less than our best but we are always striving to improve our products, standards, systems, service and the retail experience we strive to offer. The failures haunt me and the mistakes mean I continue to drive everyone to do better, every minute of every hour of every day.

2013 means more biting and more chewing as we plan the expansion of our High Street store and introduce some exciting new products and services as well as continuing to be the best that we possibly can.

Happy New Year.