Every time I come to write one of these blogs it really makes me realise how much the company has grown, every season and year since our launch back in May 2014 we have grown in such inclines I can never believe that the point we were at a year ago… was in fact only a year ago! This week we hit a huge milestone for the company and we could not be more ecstatic here in the office, we reached an astonishing 200,000 followers on instagram. Although measuring Instagram followers as a real measure of growth may seam a little vain to some, it is, in some aspects, what we work towards within the company. Used to its advantages Instagram is such an incredible tool in modern day business and i can’t thank the app enough for giving me the opportunity to reach so many people all over the world. It has been the main and really the only route of marketing we have ever used or needed. I can proudly say that Aztec Diamond is now the worlds leading equestrian clothing brand on instagram - a surreal statement to be able to say! I can’t thank each and everyone of the girls that follow us enough to have been able to build such a great and inspiring community surrounding the brand.
I still can not believe that we are now in 2018, life here at Aztec Diamond is always so busy and hectic that time just seams to fly by - I wouldn’t have it any other way. Launching the company in 2014 means we are coming up to our 4th birthday, four full years in business. Although day to day life flies by it seems like centuries ago.
So …where is Aztec Diamond now and what has been happening? Aztec Diamond now has a full time team of 7. Introducing everybody a little besides me we have my mum Jane who is a joint director, working along side me almost as a PA role. My stepdad Kevin who manages the stock room and orders. My auntie Marylin who works along side Kevin in the warehouse dealing with returns, exchanges and orders. My cousin Meghan who is head of customer service. My best friend from school Bethan who is our social media co-ordinator, and our newest recruit Lauren who is going to work along side me in marketing and design, she is quickly becoming also one of my best friends. I can’t believe my lucky stars that everyday I get to work with my family and people that I love so much. It never feels like a day of work and we have the best time, a happy office is a productive office!
Right now we are going though one of the most exciting changes within the business that we have ever gone through. Right from the beginning we have always packed and processed all our own orders and sent them directly to our customers, meaning we hold all our stock on site. We started from a small packing table in the corner of our old dining room turned office. By the time we out grew this properly we had filled the dining room, conservatory, garage and all hall ways, we moved to a larger house in October 2016 which had a separate extension giving us a separate stock room and office. We stayed at this properly for only a year as this was also shortly outgrown, by the time we moved in October we had the stock room, two bedrooms, the kitchen, a huge container out in the back yard and anywhere around the house that had a free 30cm spare full of boxes and stock. In October 2017 we then moved onto the properly where we are now, converting a barn into a huge warehouse and order packing area with separate offices. When we first moved into the barn I couldn’t believe how huge it was and wondered how we were ever going to fill and use such an enormous space. Four months into being here we are again bursting from the seems and we still have nothing in stock! Since November the volume of orders took such a huge incline which fortunately hasn’t slowed down after christmas, struggling to keep on top of demand everybody regularly chips in to keep up.
Last week we signed possibly one of the most exciting documents in the business’s life, we are moving into third party warehousing. This means another company with huge huge warehouses manage your stock and ship all your orders. I feel like this is such a huge milestone, it takes off such a stress to know were never going to struggle getting orders out again on launch days and most of all to never have to bloody move again! The most exciting part of this move for me is that the company we are working with also have warehouses in the USA so hopefully we can shift a load of stock over to the states meaning all you US customers will no longer have to pay the huge import taxes and we will be able to offer a much lower cost and quicker shipping options! Going along side this stock move we have also just signed a tenancy with a two story office premises, I am so so so excited to get into a new creative space.
Product wise I have just placed our SS18 collection orders which, as always, I am so excited for. Being the impatient chick I am the 8 weeks waiting for productions to finish always feel like a life time. We also have a full brand new range of breeches arriving for summer, any AD fans that were with us in the beginning will know how incredible our breeches were back in 2015, I can now officially announce that after nearly two years of trail and error with development which has been a huge learning experience for me we will be using the exact same fabric we used from the first productions and these brand new breeches are going to be absolutely amazing!!
Not only do we have a brand new adults range on the way, I can also officially announce that from May this year Aztec Diamond will be offering a young riders range!! Ahhh the samples I have received for this so far have brought a few tears in the office, starting at just age 4 I have never seen anything cuter than the teeny tiny leggings and base layers. This is something we get asked for so often so I can’t wait to see all the mini team AD members!
My whole life just seems to be one big excitement and I could not be more grateful, I absolutely love my job and nothing makes me more proud than receiving feedback and seeing photos of you all wearing the brand. 2018 is already shaping up to be absolutely amazing. Show wise this year we will be attending the Globals Champion Tour London in August, Horse of the year Show in October and Olympia the London International Horse Show in December - we love doing the shows and meeting you all so hope to see some of you there!
Finally, for reaching 200k on instagram we wanted to do something special and give something back to people that have and continue to support us, we will be randomly giving away a shed load of free products via instagram over the next couple of weeks so make sure you have our notifications on ready for that!
Love Jordan & the whole team here at AD xx
