Success comes with strawberries and cream
Visit the world of Sophie Allport and you're in the realms of "bumble bees" and "gingerbread men" – key design motifs for the growing family-run company's range of kitchenware fabrics.
Visit the world of Sophie Allport and you're in the realms of "bumble bees" and "gingerbread men" – key design motifs for the growing family-run company's range of kitchenware fabrics.And there's more to come as Sophie, based in Fotheringhay, near Oundle, and brother Jem have just launched their strawberry and cream range of fabrics and bags. Further ranges will appear later in the year.
All the products – also including illustrated cards and bone china – are alive with "strong yet subtle" colour and playful designs, and are proving phenomenally popular with children and adults alike.
So successful has the company become that it has more than doubled its sales in the year from March 2008 to 2009. According to Jem, similar growth is forecast in the coming 12 months.
But changes are afoot to expand Sophie Allport, to put it on a firmer business footing.
"We are looking to move to warehouse premises near Stamford in September," said Jem.
"In addition, we are looking to employ someone to provide all-round general help. Preferably, it will be a university graduate who will take on sales, admin, accounting and other ad hoc duties."
But though the company has grown significantly, it is still run like a cottage industry.
Sophie designs and illustrates the ranges, while other family members, such as her brother, mother, sister-in-law and husband, help with the selling, distributing and stock control.
Jem, an accountant, is very much the "business" driving force; mother Mary, helped by friends from the village, packages and dispatches goods from her home in Potterhanworth, near Lincoln; and sister-in-law Chloe helps with design.
The company is very much founded on family values and, as Sophie said: "We've always been a very close family, so working with Jem seemed very natural. Family trust and understanding takes a lot of stress out of doing business.
"We spent a lot of quality time around the kitchen table growing up. Now it's so exciting having our business meetings, organising orders, e-mails, etc round the same table."
From greetings cards, aprons, oven gloves, tea towels and peg bags, to fine bone china mugs and children's melamine sets, the designs are all created in Sophie's inimitable style, "the odd one out" is her signature. There are now more than 100 card designs for every conceivable occasion.
The thriving company has humble origins and came about after Sophie, who graduated from Leeds with a 1st Class Honours degree in Graphic Art & Design specialising in illustration, moved to the commercial reality of London.
"The contrast couldn't have been bigger," said Sophie.
"In Leeds I was painting wherever I got inspiration which was mostly from its beautiful architecture. And then as soon as I moved to London, I was asked to join a world-renowned illustration agency where I worked with many famous clients."
Another influential break occurred when she was invited to be a demonstrator at the Country Living Fair, painting flowers. After thinking that she really ought to have something to sell to the public at the fair, she designed four greetings cards, which sold extremely well and the rest, as they say, is history.
Having taken a couple of years out to have children, Sophie once more picked up her paintbrush and, in April 2007, started painting in her trademark style again.
Assisted by her brother, Jem, they founded a company devoted to putting her great designs on to fantastic products and distributing to a wider audience.
It has proven a remarkable success and, though the Sophie Allport brand continues to grow, with new fabric designs and an ever-expanding selection of greeting cards, fine bone china, children’s melamine sets and fun heat stands, the ranges have lost none of their unique Britishness, quaint fun and sense of style.
nFor more details about Sophie Allport, visit www.sophieallport. com
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Friday 19 March 2010
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