End of April Reflection | Gifts from Handpicked Blog

Gosh we have been so busy here at Gifts from Handpicked! Sometimes it is nice to just take a break and update you all on what we have been up to. With the start of the year being a very magical one, we started to feel as if life was getting slightly back to normal, with COVID and what not. With some members of staff being off and holidays beginning to appear, it really has been a whirlwind of emotions here at our work place. 

Not only has April been a fantastic month but we have had a great start to the year with the Gifts from Handpicked business and have lots more to be excited about! To include new suppliers such as Gentlemen's Hardware, new products from Portico Designs and Sifcon International, and much more. 

So much has been going on that I thought it would be best if I included it all in this blog post, for starters we actually missed the Gifts from Handpicked birthday, oops! Gifts from Handpicked turned 14 in the month of April which has led me to write this reflection blog. The CEO Natalie began this crazy adventure 14 years ago, inspired by gift shops in Harrogate and the wonderful world of selling. All these years have seen a lot of laughter, and a lot to be proud of. The team has expanded, it has seen a variety of Christmas temps who we will never forget and has flourished into the business it is today. With a fantastic team it is hard not to love what we do, if you want to find out more about the wonderful team at Gifts from Handpicked then explore the about us page.

With the Gifts from Handpicked birthday blessing the month of April it is also important to mention COVID and how it has impacted the business. I don't think anyone knew what the outcome was going to be of COVID and it is safe to say that is has impacted us all in one way or another. With shops shutting down it meant that the online shopping market absolutely skyrocketed, we were incredibly busy which we were so thankful for. But with COVID meant that staff had to be off and this effected our work, luckily we have an amazing team here who always pull together to make sure that everything is running as smoothly as possible. We cannot believe how many new customers we have gained during COVID and we are so thrilled to have you all on this wonderful journey! Having said this, COVID hasn't been easy for anyone and we certainly have taken a hit in one way or another. But every cloud has it's silver lining and for us that was an increase in sales and gaining more customers. So thank you all for that!

Another thing that happened in the month of the April is that our two apprentices, India and Emma are at the end of their apprenticeships, how exciting. 18 months of hard work has finally nearly paid off and the end is in sight. From apprentices to full time team players within the business. What a journey they have been on!

We also cannot forget that our lovely Zoe, the warehouse coordinator has now been here for a whopping 6 years, so it was only right to celebrate all of her hard work and accomplishments. She must like it here if she has been with us for that long. As you can tell we are a friendly work family :)

To continue the wonderful news, April also brought some competitions and awards that we were involved in. A great experience that we loved being a part of! To start off, we entered the Lincolnshire Excellence Awards 2022 which excited us very much. We also entered The Prestige Awards for Online Gift Shop Of The Year and are very proud to say that we won! We are now currently in the process of waiting for the magazine to come out in May which will authorise this. We have already read over some drafts and they look amazing, we are super proud of these achievements and will continue our endeavours on winning lots more awards. After all we think we deserve it with all our amazing hard work! Keep a look out for local Lincolnshire awards to see if we have been nominated for anything fantastical. 

We have already had some bank holidays recently which we have all been enjoying, they have blessed us with the delightful sunshine and been a great way to recoup. With more in sight we are already looking forward to the summer time and everything it has to offer. Make sure you keep a look out for all of our new summer releases of products, as we are always getting new and exciting things in.

Speaking of holidays, some of our staff have already started jetting off! To places such as America, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and more, it is great to see life returning back to some what normal. We know that a lot of our staff members have holidays planned so this is incredibly exciting to see. We are sure many of you also have holidays that you are looking forward to, where are you going and how long has it been since you last jetted off?

We hope that you have all had a wonderful start to the year, and with summer fast approaching we are getting more and more excited by the day. Now that we have Mother's Day and Easter completed it is now time to start thinking about Father's Day and the Queens Platinum Jubilee! How exciting. So make sure you are checking our new arrivals page for tons of inspiration on gifts, homeware and more. 

Have fun shopping on our website!