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Last week we exhibited for the first time at Top Drawer, so I thought I’d write a few lines about it.
Top Drawer is actually quite a fitting name for our new visual retail display here at Sophie Morrell.
As some of our regular customers know, we use old potato boxes at our shows. These carry
the old family farm name of Morrell & Sons for storing seed potatoes. Something I grew up with
working on the farm.
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Moving on a generation, I thought they looked so good as props at shows, I’d try and develop our own wooden crates. I wanted them to hold the animal cards so they could have a practical purpose and look good for selling. So alongside our new supplier, we developed a crate that could hold 8 separate designs of cards.
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We made them so that they could sit horizontally or vertically, with a little ledge of wood at the bottom to prevent anything from falling out. All our crates are drilled so it makes hanging them up easy with a couple of screws. The beauty of it is they make a very organised and creative display on the wall; with infinite possibilities for presentation.
The crates are dipped and stained to make them look old like our original family crates and have
SOPHIE MORRELL written in the same style of font stencil along the sides.
We even recreated our logo on the back of a few of the crates.
They have been so popular at Top Drawer that customers asked to buy them as an add on; to tie in their selected ranges.
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Of course not forgetting the animals, well they all loved the crates... and why wouldn’t they?
All creative great and small.
They certainly felt like the stars at Top Drawer.
The animals were all arranged by season and specific ranges.
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You can guess who wanted to be up there first and try and get in the ‘best' position.
Yes Wayne of course!
So all the reindeer got together and pushed the Ice Cube penguins into second place and then came the cats and dogs, barking and meowing and then the hedgehogs and ducks and so on.
Occasionally Buzz Bumble ended up with Scruffy the dog and Wayne managed to find himself chatting with Sly Stallone, the fox.
And Sly tried his best to eat the chickens, but didn’t!
Every morning we had a little pep talk right before the show opened.
All the animals, both great and small were told to put on their best smiles and comb their fur and see who could make the most sales to the customers.
It all worked very well indeed and we had some super sales from all around the UK and Europe.
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The animals all had their own little individual spaces, or drawers, which were framed by wooden crates on all sides. So much so from a distance they looked like they were sitting in one big wardrobe, with its own set of drawers.
Naturally the animals were competing for the 'best' sales each day and Wayne and Sly started acting out the scene from Top Gun.
Wayne said “I’m not wondering who the best is… I am the best!"
Sly turned to Wayne and said, “That’s pretty arrogant, considering the company you are in”
But those two weren’t starring in Top Gun, no it was about all the animals, great and small.
All great company and all competing to be the stars and be their own little...
…. Top Drawer.
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