Cowes Week 2010, on and off the water

What a fantastic time we had last week – Cowes Week is a whirlwind of activity on and off the water and since blogging last Tuesday so much seems to have happened. Around 900 competitors battled it out on the sea against some very challenging weather – sunshine, gusty winds and rain – but that is what they come for and that is what makes it exciting.  Tuesday saw Mike Golding win the Artemis 50 mile round the Island challenge in near perfect conditions, Wednesday celebrated Ladies Day for the fifth year running and crowned accomplished sailor Louise Morton the overall winner, Thursday’s highlight was the re-enactment of the 1851 race around the Isle of Wight that spawned sailings greatest competition, the America’s Cup – this was won by the American team in BMW Oracle beating skipper and helmsman Ben Ainslie and his team in TEAM ORIGIN, he commented: “It was fantastic. These guys are a great team to race against. It is great for us to be out there racing the America’s Cup holders around the Isle of Wight."   Friday brought with it rain and poor visibility but this did not dampen spirits and thousands of people turned out to see the wonderful firework display.  Saturday saw the last of the races culminating in the Prize Giving – there are some very coveted trophies to win but I was particularly proud to award the Liz Earle Close Shave Trophy to Eric Williams in Ecstatic - Dragon Class.

On shore at the Liz Earle stand all of us have had a great time meeting so many of our Liz Earle fans and also making so many new friends.  Hand Repair became a firm favourite with competitors as they either popped in to prepare their hands before or to soothe them after racing and the pampering hand and arm massages were as always a hit with all sessions being fully booked by mid morning every day – sorry to anyone who couldn’t book in but do try again next year or pop into either one of our stores where you can enjoy one with our compliments.  Excitingly we held our very first event at Biskra Beach House with Liz last Thursday where over 100 customers enjoyed an evening of champagne and an opportunity to meet Liz all in celebration of our 15^th Anniversary – it was a truly brilliant evening.  We would love to run some more events at our home on the Island so if you or your friends would like to join us please let us know by emailing RSVP@lizearle.com

It seems sad that it is all over for another year but there is 2011 to look forward to – a big thank you to everybody who came to visit us on our Cowes Week stand last week. We loved meeting so many of you despite the occasional drizzle! If you were there, then see if you can spot yourself in our Cowes Week gallery on Facebook.

Pampering at Cowes Regatta

Wow, I can’t believe it’s the beginning of August and our 4th year as Official Skincare Sponsors of Cowes Week – we are all so excited you would think it was our first! Since Wednesday, we have been building our stand on the parade – opening on Friday lunch time to the delight of many passing visitors.

By Saturday, the parade was really buzzing. The sun was shining, our flags fluttered in the breeze, people thronged the town and yachts filled the Solent - it felt like the regatta had truly started. By mid afternoon, gusts had reached 16 knots as a sea breeze kicked in, which made it both exciting and challenging for the competitors.

Today marks Charity Day, which means the RNLI - the official Cowes Week Charity - will be out and about raising funds as well as promoting their life saving work. There will be a rescue demonstration off the Green at Egypt Point this evening, and RNLI Ambassadors Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson and transatlantic sailor Hannah White, will also be supporting activities around Cowes throughout the day.

Many customers have already enjoyed a pampering treat – one of our relaxing hand and arm massages – we will be offering these every day, so if you are around just pop in and treat yourself. In celebration of the 15th anniversary of our hero Cleanse & Polish, we are also giving everyone who visits our stand the opportunity to take part in our competition to win a year’s supply of this multi award-winning cleanser – a chance not to be missed.

I can’t wait till tomorrow when I will be on the stand myself – I would love to meet you so do pop in and say hello.

Christmas countdown

This week I started thinking about my Christmas list. Each Autumn, I retrieve the small notebook of festive jottings in which I write what I have given my nearest and dearest - partly to make sure I don’t repeat myself but also to keep track of the growing number of nephews, Godchildren and family friends I’d like to buy a little something special for over the next oh-so-short two months. I’ve also made a shopping list of the ingredients for our Christmas cake which I’ll make soon too, on an afternoon when all four children are home so they can all stir the fruity mixture and make a wish. Once made, I tightly wrap the cake in baking parchment and clingfilm (having first sprinkled liberally with brandy to soak in) and leave to ‘mature’ in the pantry until it’s iced. It’s a simple tradition, but one that, for me, marks the beginning of the Christmas countdown and I really enjoy the sense of anticipation for festivities yet to be enjoyed and presents soon to be wrapped (and with a bit of luck, unwrapped!).

This week has also been a busy one on the Island for the team as we get ready for one of the real highlights of the year on QVC, the shopping channel. This is our Christmas TSV and it is a hugely exciting 24-hour period of live broadcasting when we launch a very special offer (and lots more besides), live on-air. For those who have never been part of the experience, TSV stands for Today’s Special Value and QVC launch one every single day at midnight (yes, I know, but this is a very popular time of day for the QVC viewing family…). For one day only, we produce a beautiful set of skincare at an extremely ‘special’ price and promote this as our TSV. The exact contents have to remain a secret and so I’m afraid I’m absolutely not allowed to reveal the details, except to say that this year, the team have really excelled themselves and there’s something really very special that’s been included. Don’t say I didn’t tip you off in advance.

One of the best things for me about the event is the opportunity it gives me to chat live on-air to callers who ring into the studio – which always reminds me of the live phone-ins I used to do on Richard and Judy’s This Morning programme so very many years ago. I love it because it’s so real and inter-active – we also get lots of text messages and emails coming through, so do tune in and join me if you’ve not done so before, especially if you’ve any wonderful stories or skincare experiences to share.

One of the things I’ll be launching on Saturday is our brand new Christmas box range and this year they are all especially beautiful. We’ve spent almost the entire year working on these (our first planning meeting happens in January, just after we’ve taken the tinsel down). We’ve lots of shapes, colour and sizes but the overall theme features a beautiful beach botanical Eryngium maritimum, or Sea Holly. Up-close, the flower of this special, spikey plant looks just like an intricate snowflake but it’s actually an endangered species, found in very few places and one of them is on our very own Isle of Wight. I was fascinated by this unusual botanical, which is not only beautiful and rare, but also extremely useful as this coastal plant has an extensive root system that helps bind sand on our sea shore. This is especially important in areas where there has been much coastal development, as it can help preserve sand dunes and the unique wildlife habitat they attract. If you’re visiting the Island, watch out for this pretty plant which we’ve spotted growing wild in Yarmouth’s Norton Spit, St Helen’s Duver and Newtowns Creek, but don’t pick it as it’s on the Sussex Rare Species Inventory (and even has regional protection in Northern France).

I do hope you’ll be able to tune in over the weekend and join me – either at our live midnight launch, or for some of the many live shows being broadcast throughout Saturday, from mid-morning right the way through the day until late evening. And do let us know what you think of both the shows and our new Christmas boxes by leaving a comment here on the Blog – the team and I really hope you’ll be as dazzled and delighted as we all are.

John Lewis – the perfect partnership

This is the second week of our promotion in Union (our IOW shop) and our London shop of a complimentary mini Cleanse & Polish, plus the chance to win a year’s supply in our prize draw competition. In John Lewis, Oxford Street, we’ve also been given one of the key windows for two weeks, which is terribly exciting to see – I caught a bus down last week, and felt all tingly with excitement to see us in the window. Inside, we have a special stand where we can meet new customers and greet old friends, who have come to see us in this new home. The John Lewis team are very positive and we’re learning together about how to translate our high service levels in this new retail environment – the team are positive, and so helpful – a great partnership. Our next stores to launch are Cambridge and Edinburgh so looking forward to getting out and training the teams in these towns shortly.

The Green House

Have I’ve mentioned how wonderful our new home is?! If I have, then I will say it again. The Green House is where we are all now based, on the island – eco-friendly and super efficient, this sure is 21st century working! It’s wonderful to all be in the same building – I still remember the early days, as I’ve been here nearly 9 years, when there were a small handful of people. We now number over 250 and we sell to over 77 countries, world-wide, so we really did need a big working home to encompass us all.

I love seeing all my colleagues when I’m on the island, and we are all able to communicate so easily now – it’s better than ever. It must be good for our IT team too, as I’m sure that we receive fewer emails now that everyone is in one building. We can now also all socialise easily at lunchtime, as all the teams share a lunch space away from our desks – so a great chance to catch up on everyone’s news.

I also love the specially-designed warehouse downstairs – it has all been designed for our own specific needs, so it works like clockwork. It’s so motivating seeing the rows of teams working hard on their hand-wrapping of products; then round the corner to the picking team who are carefully collating customer orders from the shelves (or ‘pick face’); then through to the despatch team. It’s a highly organised system and people never fail to be amazed at the efficiency, speed and dedication of the team. I often wonder if the team dream about wrapping in their sleep sometimes – you can see that they are able to faultlessly wrap, hardly even needing to look down. What a skill – and how wonderful Christmas must be for these skilled ladies!

We can all look forward to our special Christmas newsletter with ideas to take the hard work out of Christmas planning and wrapping – always a joy when someone else does the hard work, at this busy time of the year. In fact, our fulfilment team have been wrapping in preparation for Christmas during the whole of the summer – so, whilst you were maybe sunning yourself on a beach, our team had their Santa’s Elves hats on already!