Selling like hotcakes

We are in the midst of the usual end-of-week flurry of activity when everyone seems to want to order their Queen products, including one of our stockists John Bell & Croyden. We have had a number of John Bell customers calling the office this week to say/complain that the store - a large specialist pharmacy in London's Wigmore Street - was out of stock of sensitive skin essentials such as Medicated Cleansing Lotion, Theatrical Cleansing Cream and Queen Moisturiser. Finally, John Bell has ordered (delayed by a big stock taking or somesuch) and obviously they need the products yesterday. So much for Friday being a day for winding down.

The fact that we are in the middle of making new batches of Sensiderma Day Cream, Medicated Cleansing Lotion and our lovely gentle Shampoo (ideal for sore, itchy scalps and sufferers of seborrheic dermatitis etc) mean it's a bit hot and steamy down here at Bulrushes Farm, our Sussex headquarters.

Talking of the farm, there are some interesting businesses here. It's a mini 'industrial' estate except there's nothing very industrial about the horses, donkeys, foxes and pheasants that wander nonchalently around. In high summer, the farm is a profusion of hanging baskets which almost makes you think you are entering a UK-version of an agriturismo (those lovely Italian farms which double as or have been turned into hotels) when you drive up. The noise heralding the arrival of the sandwich van rather ruins this illusion at 11am. Some visitors this week thought it was an ice-cream van despite the sub-zero temperatures.

Just around the corner from us is a company called The Tiny Box Company www.tinyboxcompany.co.uk which sells all sorts of eco-friendly boxes/bags/packaging. All the cardboard and paper is re-cycled and we have started to buy all our gift boxes from them. They only opened in October but have clearly hit a nerve because they are run off their feet. I was talking to the founder, Rachel, the other day and discovered that she started the company because she was unable to find suitable boxes for the fairtrade jewellery she also sells. The company sells to the public as well as to other businesses and is well worth checking out if you are looking for ethical, stylish packaging.

Yesterday's weekly Thursday visit to John Bell was rather marred by the empty shelves although, yet again, I was able to use the gaps as proof that the products are selling like hotcakes! Sadly, there were no stars to be seen this week unless, of course, they were well disguised. Still, there were lots of interesting customers to talk to, including a lady who worked for gents' outfitters Brooks Brothers in Regent Street. I was telling her about one of our longstanding customers, the wife of the Chairman of Aquascutum, who looks about 35 and is a wonderful advert for Queen when the woman herself walked in (looking marvellous for her age and thus proving I do not exaggerate!). Annoyingly for her, the products she wanted were out of stock and I think, from talking to the girls on the cosmetics' counter, that it was her sister (another longstanding Queen customer) who had purloined the last of the items she wanted the previous day. Fortunately, they are both such devoted fans that they will make return trips once stocks are replenished.

We have had lots of nice comments about the range this week, including from John Bell customers who have had samples of the products or who buy Queen regularly from the store. One woman ordered two Theatrical Cleansing Creams saying 'your representative told me this was better than anything else I would try and he was right'. It just shows if you can get samples into people's hands you have a good chance of converting them.

Trials are still ongoing of our anti-wrinkle cream and our new cleanser made from safflower oil and we hope to be able to update you on these soon and to introduce them to the range in the not-too-distant future.

For now, it's back to the orders. For some reason, Sensiderma Gentle Toner is flavour of the day and our Kohl eye pencils for sensitive eyes are not far behind.

Until next week.