As a company and as a brand, we must tackle new situations and challenges which make our day-to-day business an uphill struggle. However, we will overcome them through ingenuity, our teamwork and your support as a customer.

 

Delays in new products

In the lead paragraph of this report we listed a series of changes affecting the fashion world.

In a few months, we have seen the major brands transferring their production to Europe, overloading the old continent’s manufacturers. China is no longer as attractive for manufacturing as before, while Portugal has now become a leading production location.

Yes, of course you’re currently hearing all this on radio and television. For some it may seem remote, but we’re here to tell you it’s 100% real.

It’s affected us at Trendsplant: the new winter collection has been delayed and the availability of new products on the website has suffered.

We’re trying to cut the delays, but it’s not just a production problem.

As well as the overloading of the factories, we must add the raw materials shortage, transport problems, and rising electricity prices.

Despite everything, we’ve decided not to pass on these rises to customers like you in the prices of our products, Thanks for your support.

 

Archive Sale

We launched this initiative several days ago. There were people who were surprised to see it.

Some customers wrote to remind us of our usual stance against continuous discounts, instead demonstrating the effort and work that goes into each product.

We’ve never done anything so aggressive, and this action has generated a very interesting internal debate which has taught us a lot.

A good part of our catalog is shifting to organic cotton, one step further down the path to sustainability we embarked on years ago.

Through this action we have freed up space in the warehouse, enabling us to take in more organic products, and of course, control our production better and opt more often for alternatives such as pre-order. Lesson learned!

Towards zero plastic

All our products arrive at the warehouse in plastic bags.

The bags still exist, they help to protect the products.

Having received the goods, we remove the bags and recycle them. Even so, we wish to go one step further: we’re thinking of a zipped plastic bag we can return to the factory to be reused for new products.

Reduce, reuse or recycle. Those are our parameters.

We’re also thinking of using potato starch bags, but we haven’t found a supplier who guarantees they will remain in good condition over time.

Knits Pre-order

Without doubt the star product this winter. We wanted to launch before it before, but we’ve told you the situation we’re now in.

We love having a garment like this manufactured in Cuenca, just 200 kilometers from our warehouse, by one of the best Spanish manufacturers.

It consists of 80% merino wool and 20% polyamide, is made from Italian yarn and comes in four colors: green, navy blue, gray and beige.

Some very important figures

We closed the third quarter with 37% growth, both in the online store and the traditional store in Alicante.

2020 was both difficult and special at the same time. Despite the pandemic we managed to double our total turnover compared to 2019, exceeding more than half a million euros.

For 2021 we set a turnover target of €800,000, with a view to exceeding €1 million in 2022. The orders we’ve received this year have increased by 9% in value compared to 2020.

The engine of our growth is partly the website, where we are making great efforts: it’s a part of the business that can be scaled up exponentially.

Nevertheless, we shouldn’t forget our traditional store in Alicante, whose sales are growing despite uncertain times and despite being a single-brand store.

The website grew by 122% in 2020 compared to 2019. In 2021 so far we have grown by 48%, matching the turnover for the whole of last year by the end of September.

Our team is a small family, we’re far from having the large headcount of other brands. However, we’re proud of having eight people on our staff. They’re people who live the brand as if it was their own.

It forms the basis for building ourselves as an alternative and being able to grow over the years. It’s an investment which has no immediate effect, but we believe we need it to fit with the values of our brand.

If we must pick out a star product, in the last three years our trunks made from SEAQUAL® YARN have performed spectacularly, representing between 10-15% of total turnover. It's a significant figure, especially bearing in mind that they are a seasonal product.

Repack and reuse

The sustainable packaging which may be added to their order by all Trendsplant customers who want it, is becoming an increasingly frequent alternative in the orders.

Germany is the source of most orders opting for this packaging which helps to improve the state of the environment, followed by the Netherlands and Spain.

Thanks to all those who opt for Repack: as you know, small gestures can turn out to be significant actions.

Six months, five attempted thefts

Yes, you read it right. This is a new situation for us as a brand, and it has quite surprised us. We’ve not faced these situations in the traditional stores we’ve had.

During the last six months, our Alicante store team has foiled five attempted thefts. There have been surreal situations, like the customer who tried to steal several tried-on garments.

Fortunately, they have only been attempts and our team has not come to any harm, which is what matters to us.

However, we would like to share with you all that never has anything similar happened to us in such a short space of time.