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WINNING WAYS: MONTY BOJANGLES & WILD & WOLF
Two other brands from our industry were also recognised with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise this year.
Sweet Success
The Monty Bojangles brand is a premium range of award winning dusted truffles sold in a range of gift boxes and sharing pack formats in all major multiple retailers in the UK, along with many speciality and fine food independent retailers, high street and specialist stores. The brand is also exported to around 20 international territories. The latest award is just one in a long line of accolades for this fastgrowing brand. “We have won multiple design and business awards across the last 5 years, as well as Great Taste Awards every year. We also ranked 17th in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 league table,” explains md Andrew Newlands proudly. Monty Bojangles Top: Andrew Newlands, md of Monty Bojangles. was selected for the Above: Growth in international sales has given Queen’s Enterprise Monty Bojangles the sweet taste of success. International Trade Award because in the last three years the company has grown its international sales turnover from below £400k to over £1.9m. “As a percentage of our total turnover, international sales through the same period grew from below 9% to over 23%. These business results demonstrated to the judging panel that the company has succeeded in building meaningful and sustainable international enterprise across multiple years at an accelerating rate,” adds Andrew. Even the delivery for the invitation (a gold edged, thick cream card) left Andrew feeling “utterly overwhelmed”. “The entire evening was a glittering and magical experience,” he recalls. “The Palace itself is utterly breathtaking. While I have to admit to anticipating much pomp and rigidity to proceedings, the actual event inclusive of the party and the audience with Prince Charles was very relaxed and very informal.” But what has winning the award meant to the company? “This award is the pinnacle of business achievement in the UK – hence we are all utterly over the moon,” enthuses Andrew. “The Monty Bojangles brand remains a property that I am keen to situate into new categories within UK retail. Our ongoing partnership with Beams International in composite gifting is proving hugely successful; their success has really stoked my resolve towards finding new licensing partners. Furthermore, with our growing UK distribution and international business the opportunities to expand the reach of licensed products has grown significantly.”
Wild About Growth
Founded in 2005, and now employing 150 people globally, Wild & Wolf creates design-led gifts and lifestyle products across a wide portfolio of popular licensed and own IP brands, including Gentlemen’s Hardware, Ted Baker, Pretty Useful Tools, Petit Collage, Orla Kiely and Happy Jackson among others. Above: Ted “We think we were selected Baker is still a strong for a Queen’s Enterprise brand for Award due to our Wild & Wolf. recent incredible progress within international trade, most especially during the past three years,” says Joelle Engolia, senior marketing executive. “We’ve consistently been demonstrating substantial international growth in overseas earnings and commercial success within the sector. We began as a predominantly UK centric business and by the end of 2018 two thirds of our business will be outside of the UK, with the US being our single biggest market.” Commercial director James Portman and export manager John Scarman attended the event at Buckingham Palace earlier in the year and felt “incredibly proud and excited to be able to accept the award on the company’s behalf at a historic royal palace”. “They said it felt particularly surreal to receive a personalised, premium invitation monogrammed with the royal seal in the post to then present it at the front entrance of the Palace,” laughs Joelle. Commenting on what the accolade has meant for morale and business, Joelle adds: “It’s meant a great deal for us, as it’s been a reinforcement of all of our hard work over the past several years and shows us that we’re on the right path.” She adds: “We’re at a very exciting juncture at the moment. As we’ve grown our business exponentially within international markets, this has also translated to more growth closer to home: we’ve recently relocated our UK head office to a unique, tailor-made larger office space in the centre of Bath to cope with our ever-expanding team.” In terms of brands, Orla Kiely continues to be a bestselling licence for the company, while the partnership with Ted Baker is still going strong with AW18 seeing the launch of a stylish new collection of gifts. “Overall, we hope that winning this award will further drive prosperous international growth in markets such as Asia and in the EU,” Joelle concludes. Right: (l-r) James Portman, commercial director and John Scarman, export manager outside the gates of Buckingham Palace.
LICENSING SOURCE BOOK EUROPE 2016
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