Buying a Factory & Reviving the Gluggle Jug – with Sophie Mahlo

Welcome to the bring your product idea to Life podcast.

This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling products or if you'd

like to create your own product to sell. I'm Vicki Weinberg, a product

creation coach and Amazon expert. Every week, I share friendly,

practical advice as well as inspirational stories from small businesses.

Let's get started.

Hello. So, today on the podcast, I am speaking to Sophie

Marlowe. Sophie produces and sells the iconic Gluggle

Jug. So you might have seen this jug, it looks like a fish and makes

a gurgling sound when you pour it. Well, Sophie

actually owns the factory that produces and makes the

Gluggle Jug. And this is quite new. Sophie shares her story of

how she started off, first finding out about the Gluggle Jug.

She then became the distributor for the product in Germany, and she

talks about how that evolved and, you know, how and why

she now today owns the factory. So, as you can imagine, this is a

fascinating story. I don't want to give too much away in the intro because I

would love you to listen. So I'm going to stop talking and

introduce you now to Sophie.

So, hi, Sophie. Thank you so much for being here. Hi, dear

Vicky, thank you so much for having me. Oh, you're so welcome.

Can we start by you give an introduction to yourself, your business and what you

sell, please. Yeah. So, my name is Sophie

Mahlo, I'm living in Berlin

and I'm 48 years

old, and I started a business

consisting in distributing the famous

Gluggle Jugs, which I'm not sure your

listeners need an introduction to because it's such a popular item

in the UK, it's a fish jar

or it's a water pitch jar in form of a fish

that has been created

in Staffordshire, and that has been.

And that gurgles when you use it. So usually when you pour

water out of it or when you bounce it and.

Yeah, and because of that funny sound that it makes and because of

the many laughters that it. That it

provokes, it's still around. And so

I used to distribute it

for the last 13 years, first in

Germany and in Europe, and

now I do a bit more. But maybe we should I just say it? Yeah.

Yeah, you can say, yeah. Okay. And eventually,

that produces them in Stoke on Trent, which we

now call the Gluggle Jug factory. And I run that factory.

Well, that is amazing. And as you say, we've got so much to cover.

So let's start. If you don't mind Sophie. Right at the beginning. So when

did you discover Gluggle Jugs? When did you first come across them, as

it were? So

actually, also 13 years ago, I went to visit a friend of mine who

is half british half belgian. Her name

is Vic, and she invited me

for a nice brunch, and I was really thirsty. And I

said to another friend of mine, wow, I need to drink something, I'm

so thirsty. And he said, oh, my God. Let me show you something really fun

that will pour water out of it. And then he served me a

glass of water from a white Gluggle Jug. And

everybody started laughing and said, oh, my God, this thing is so funny.

And I was like, yeah, it really is. And then

we started all talking about it. And

the story is that my british friend,

her grandmother, already had that Gluggle Jug,

and whoever gets married in her family

gets offered a pair of Gluggle Jugs, and so did

she. So that was my first encounter

of the Gluggle Jug in some. In

some apartment in Berlin. Amazing. And

when you found out about the jugs, how did you go from there to becoming

the distributor? So

many of my friends already knew this fish from my friend, and

they said, yeah, we all want to have one as well, but it's really difficult

to buy one. You need to have an address

in England for the

agent at that time to send you a jug.

And if you live outside of the UK, then they won't send it to you.

And I was like, wow.

I thought, okay, that's weird, but let's see, and maybe we can do something

about it. And at that time, I was writing a

book in a library, and I had a lot of time

compared to my friends. And I said, okay, I'm going to do some research and

just try to get these fish so we can all enjoy them more.

And so I went online and I googled

and I found the website of the people that sold it,

and I wrote them and I said, can you. Can you send

me some fish over? And they said, no, we don't ship outside of

the UK for insurance reasons. And also

because the shipping is maybe too

costly also. And then they said that sentence, you

know, you know, if there would be a way, we would have figured it out

because there's so much demand for this fish. We've been asked so

many times outside of the UK to send it, and it just doesn't work.

And that's why we won't send it to you.

You need to give us a british address. For us

to send it out. And then

I said, okay, well, if you don't want to send it to me, can you

please give me the phone number of the people that produce it? Maybe they would

be willing to send me the fish directly. And they said,

yes, the fish is reduced by weight ceramics. And they gave

me the contact person of their sales manager, Kim Rolle. And

I got in touch with her, and I asked her if she would

sell me jugs. And she's like, yeah, of course, but

you have to figure out the shipping, and you have to

be at the risk for it. And I was like, yeah, just make sure they're

nicely wrapped, and it should make a difference whether you

send a fish within the UK or outside of the UK.

So, yeah, let's just do that. And then she said,

okay, you have to take ten, because that's our minimum order.

And I was like, well, okay, I take four for my friends,

one for me. And then I thought, maybe it's a nice gift to have,

so I'll take those ten. So I ordered them. I

figured out the shipping. It comes to Berlin. And

as soon as they were here, I was super proud of having

them. And I had some fun neighbors in my house,

or in the house in which I lived. And

whenever they walked the stairs up, they always knocked at my door. And I'm like,

guys, you have to come in and listen to this. And then I showed them

the fish, and I said, oh, my God, this is so funny. And I'm

invited to a wedding. I'm going to take two of those. And the other one

said, yeah, I want to have one too. So within one and a half days,

I had sold the other five fish that I bought in addition.

And then I was like, okay, my friends and I

are not the only ones that really love this thing. And it's

so fun to sell it, because, as you can imagine, everybody was

laughing around the selling process in the sense that

when showing the fish and making it gurgle,

everybody was so, you know, happy and laughing, and it's

like, oh, my God, I need to have it. And then, so I thought, okay,

maybe I'm onto something here. I'm going to call this Kim again.

And given the fact that their jugs are not sold abroad, I'm just going to

ask them to give me the distribution rights for,

let's say, german speaking Europe.

Because I thought, if I build up a website, it's going to be

in German. And obviously there's not. Only

at that time, you know, we didn't have these apps where you have like 20

languages and so on. But I thought if I make

it in German, then I can just cover all german speaking Europe, meaning

Austria, Switzerland, and north of Italy. So I'm going to ask for

the german speaking distribution rights.

And I told them, if you're happy with my

work, I would like to ask

for the option to extend the

exclusivity for another year. Sorry, I didn't say that, but

obviously I wanted to have exclusivity for a certain time.

But I also understood that nobody gives you exclusivity if they don't

know you and if they don't know how you perform. So I

tried to agree a deal that

would meet my and their interest and make

sure that they get not stuck with someone that does do

anything for their product. I said,

okay, let's start with a certain period of time, and then if you're happy with

my performance, then you will extend that exclusivity. And

if you're happy again, then we continue like that. So

rolling option. And also,

yeah, and I made sure that I also built some pressure on myself in the

sense that the numbers of sales had to

increase from term to term to

give them a good feeling and

look kind of serious to them. And luckily they

agreed. So I started ordering.

So once I had cleared that with them,

you need to know I'm a lawyer by profession.

Not anymore, but that's what I used to be in that

time. And obviously, I had

no background in

distributing, selling, except

of my services, but selling in a shop, building

up a brand, no knowledge

whatsoever. But I really

love this thing. And I knew that if you show

it, that usually people will like it. So I was

quite confident about it. And

maybe in the beginning I was also having second thoughts

because I studied in the States, I studied

in Germany, I'm an attorney in different

countries. And then first I thought, okay, what will my clients think if

they see selling a fish jar?

What will that mean for my professional legal career? But

then I thought, well, they don't need to

know. And it can just be like a little side dish, and it's just fun.

And anyway, I'm writing this PhD, so why not having

a little side, some side money? And I didn't have,

like, I didn't have like, big expectations

of anything, right? I just thought, I have nothing to lose.

I don't need to scream it all around that I'm doing this. I'm just going

to start and see how people react. And so

wherever I went, I always had a fish in my bag. And

whenever I passed a cool store

and admitted in Berlin, there are lots of cool stores close to the university,

close to the library. I'm just going to walk in

and show them the fish. And that's what I did. So

I went to cool stores or just some nice stores. I

also went to some bars and restaurants that had

a good, good

reputation, you know, very often if you go to bar or

place, then you'll see some water on it on a,

on a desk with some cups for clients if they want to drink

something. And I showed them the fish and I talked them into

exchanging that novel bottle, let's

say, versus this beautiful fish jar, or

I showed it to merchant, to shops. I just walked into a

shop. I asked to talk to the manager. I showed him, I asked for some

water also that didn't carry the water around with me. And then I showed them

the thing and I said, why don't you want to, would you like to order

some? Would you like to try? And so on. And they were like,

open. Because in the end of the day, shops always want

to sell something new. They're always looking for something

new. So they're actually really grateful if you come and show them something that could

sell. Yeah. Especially if you excited yourself

about it. So that's how I started. And

then I wanted to order 100 in order to

make sure that the shipping costs are not too high.

And I thought in order to keep my own risk low, I'm

just going to sell 50 of those already to some shop owners

and, you know, and then have 50 on

reserve for me, for, you know, friends or friends of friends or

whatever. And that way I knew that with the

money that I would get from the shops, I would more or less

cover the cost of the fish

that I, that I, that I had in stock

for myself. And also I asked the shop

owners to, you know, to buy, to pay,

to do prepayment, to also have a low risk

and. Yeah, and they agreed. I didn't want them to pay

long before. I just told them, as soon as I've got those fish, I will

send you an invoice, and then I ask you to pay. So,

and then I. Right away, I'm going to deliver the goods.

So that worked really nicely.

And again, it kept my own risk really

low. It's not so difficult to sell

50 items. I just collected the

orders. I had no pressure anyway. I mean, no big

pressure. And of course, before

I started selling the jugs, I sat down

and I thought, okay, how

much does Wade want for it? How much do I need to pay for the

shipping? What happens if the

pound gets stronger and the u are lower? So I need little

buffers on there. What if I need

a. If this grows and scales and I

need someone to help me, so I need to count that, that in

and what happens. And then, of course, I

knew that I need the orders of the merchants to,

you know, buy a lot of them. And therefore,

it was really important that I already had some margin, even if

I was selling to a shop. Many people that start selling

something, they think about the b two c business, meaning

business to customer. So they think about the b to

c prices and they forget a little bit about the b to

b business. But you want to make sure that your

end consumer price also covers business

b to b business. Okay. So that if then the shop comes

and says, oh, my God, I saw this on this. And that client, I want

to sell it too. That you don't lose that market.

Yeah. And I just asked Sophie, thank you for all of that. So with that,

did you. Did you set the b to b price? Obviously, you set

the b to b price. Did you set the b two c price with these

shops? Did you tell them, okay, you have to retail it at this

amount? Yeah. I mean, not in that language. But I

said, first of all, again, again,

the business owners or the shop owners, they are

used to receive a

recommend, recommended retail price.

So they would also ask me, okay, for how much do we sell it?

And I knew that they need a margin of.

In UK, it's a bit higher than in Germany, but I think I started with

2.2. In the UK, people like

2.4. So, you know.

So, yeah, I made sure that they had the margin that they

expect and that it's still something

that a end consumer would like to pay.

And yes. So, yes, my answer is yes. Thank you so much.

I really wanted to clarify that, because unless I'm. Well, you can tell me if

I've misunderstood, but. So were you focused on selling b two b before

you yourself were selling b to c?

Yeah, let's say I did it

synchronically. I. First of all, I sat down

and I thought about all the possible costs that could occur

and not thinking of me in my little apartment with

some stock, my hallway.

But I thought, a business only

makes a lot of fun if you can scale it.

That's also the only way you can

run a business and kind of feel free, because at some

point, you don't want to be your own slave. Right. You want to have

someone that helps you. You want to maybe outsource the logistic.

You know, obviously you have a shipping company that picks up the goods,

but you want to have a warehouse. You don't want it to

be everywhere. In the beginning. It's cute when you have your little business, but,

but you, your goal is always to build up a

business. And in order for business to build up,

you also need grown up prices.

That's why it's important to sit down and think

as if you already succeeded and have

a big demand, have created a big demand.

So with big demand comes big maintenance

cost. So what plays into it? And

therefore, my price needs to be this and that because. And then I still

make my margin.

Many people that develop a business, I've

noticed, are really hard on themselves

and very generous for everybody else that's involved in

the selling process. Yeah. And I think you have

to make sure that you don't suffer from your own

success because you started with such low prices and then

think it's difficult to raise them or something. That's such good

advice. I think you're possibly the first person I've spoken with who

is so forward thinking as to think about where you

wanted to be rather than where you are right now in

terms of the prices. Because I do know people who

put their prices up at various stages along the way because they realize,

okay, if I want to do this, if I sell at this price, my margins

are too low, so I have to put the price up when I known people

to do that. So I think to think in the outset, okay,

price, where you want to be longer term, is such great

advice. Yes. And I

mean, maybe it's getting a little too

philosophical at this point, but I think

we women, usually, if we also are involved in a

family, we have so much to do. We have so

much work to do. I don't talk only about our business work,

obviously. I speak about managing the home, you

know, all the tasks that we need to do, taking care

of the kids, spending time with the kids without doing anything,

you know, having a free mind. We need to be really strong

people. And therefore, I encourage everybody

to build a business. I think it's fantastic because it gives you

freedom and it gives you self confidence.

Sorry. And

it gives you story, you know,

it gives you the way to create something and to,

you know, unleash sides and

powers that usually

we're not trained to show or trained to have, but

they are all in us. And

what I've also noticed is that, again, I'm repeating a little

bit myself that women

can be really super cautious, so much so

that they rather pay a higher price

themselves in working even

harder, you know, to make it better for other

people. And obviously, of course, the business has to be nice for

everybody. But when I say that, I also, it means that it also

includes yourself. Right. So in the end, it has

to make sense, the whole thing. And you

don't, I don't know, you just don't want to be in a

position where you,

where you work so much

to make mens with

small thinking that you had in the beginning.

That makes a lot of sense. Can I ask at the outset,

and did you plan from the outset

that one day you would stop practicing law and this would

be what you would do? Or did that just

evolve over time? That evolves over

time. I remember my brother said, can you please

stop selling these jugs and concentrate on

your international entertainment law and on building

up the business there? Can you just stop these fish things, this fish

business? And I was like, no, I love this fish business because once

it works, it's going to work independently

of me when it comes to law. I need to sit

at the computer, I need to dive into a contract, and

I need quietness and calm to, you know, to

work on this. And that takes

a lot of time. Yeah. And I only have so and so much time per

day. However, if I'm selling something and if

I'm selling a lot, I can outsource the warehouse, like

the warehouse, the logistic,

the preparing to ship it. I can have an online

webshop. I don't need to have an offline webshop where I'm

standing from dusk till dawn, but I can have an online

webshop that is connected to that warehouse. So

I liked this business idea because it would make

me independent of work. I would just have to overview

everything. And whereas being a lawyer is something

that I liked, but it's really time consuming. And even if you

then take other partners or younger lawyers,

you're liable for what they do. So even if you take them in,

you still have to look at what they're doing. And, you know,

so, yes. So when I started,

I thought, it's a cool, it's cool. Some pocket money to have it

aside. And then I also realized that it's so much more

fun to sell gluggling fish jars

than negotiating contracts. I also like that. But

I have to say, it's just a positive

feeling to sell something that makes other people laugh.

And no, I've never thought that could happen. I

actually only realized maybe three

or four years ago, I realized how much potential was in that

fish and how much

bigger I could make this business if I

was really focused on that and not doing

everything at once. I had a really busy day

to have a calm

surrounding to do contracts and then taking care of the kids and bringing

them everywhere. Going to my garage of my

parents, which became my warehouse, fulfilling the

orders and going back to the law firm. And it was

just too much. And at some point, I understood, actually, I

can just. I could actually stop working as a

lawyer and just do that.

And I like that idea because, again,

I could build up a business that makes me.

That doesn't need me to be alive. Yeah.

Whereas the law firm, that would never work, I would

always have to run that law firm. And I guess, as you say,

also frees up the time for you to spend more time with your family or

have other interests, whatever it might be.

I guess one of the benefits of selling products, as you've said, is you

don't need to physically be there all of the time. You can travel,

you can take time away, and as long as you have everything set up, the

people, the processes, the business just carries on. Yeah,

exactly. It takes some time till you're there, but totally.

And I would also recommend everybody who has a busy

life or wants to have time for herself or

for her family

to wisely choose an occupation that

is aimed to make yourself

obsolete. You know, of course you need to keep control over

it, but build up something

that can sustain and run itself with you

just overviewing it and not you being

in the details and being involved

10 hours a day. Yeah. Thank you. That's really important.

Yeah. And so to do that, did you start to build up a team

to work for you? No. No, not

yet. How did you manage to achieve.

To achieve that? So, first of all,

so in the beginning, all we did, actually, was

just to put the jug on every. Every

table that we were either invited to or,

you know, that we hosted. And then friends

would get to know the fish, and then they loved it, and then they would

buy it, and then they would put it on their tables and then make it

and then present it to their friends. And so

the first maybe

six, seven years, eight years

I spent in building up a

shop, a clientele. Right. I, right away

build up an online shop. I just did it with, you know,

something like shopify today, so that's not too complicated.

And not too costly. And, of course, I had

zero traffic because nobody knew about it. But then I would just

make sure that the fish stands or that the product stands

on. On platforms where other people

could hear it or see it. Yeah.

And, yeah,

so. And then after. After many, many

years, I had more and more people. Obviously, you can also go to trade

shows, and then also, you know, that's also your

platform for multiplying. I didn't go to plat to.

I didn't do that. I wasn't. I wasn't that ambitious in the

beginning. I just put it everywhere, and it was like a

grassrooted awareness for the food.

And then eventually, shops started calling me,

saying they saw this here and there on the Berlin fashion week or

whatever, and they want to order or. I also put it

a lot in hotels. So people that stayed there, it was used, then

again on their tables, and the guests would take it home and then

make it known there and so on. Once

I had a big, or, let's say, like, a

valuable distribution list, I realized

that actually I could spend some money on trade

shows. So I started making. Going on a first trade

show and then on another one,

and that was really nice.

On the first trade show, the fish was still not known.

But a few years later, I went again on that same trade show,

and that increased

my whole business by one

third or even one

half. It was a huge.

By then, the fish had become so popular

that people were just happy to see my stand there.

Although it was the first time after eight years that I went

back and.

Okay, and then when I. And then initially, I had,

like, one delivery per month. And then I would, you

know, schlep all the stuff here. I would ask a friend to come and help,

and I would pay that person to schlep all

the merchandise into my living room. And then I

would do one day of, you know, repacking for

all the merchants again. Before I ordered, I

always already sold half of it. Right? And then the next

day, the guy from the mail would come and pick everything up.

So I was happy that half of the drugs were

already gone, and the rest, I had a little room here

that I made, my little warehouse. Then at some point, I

got the garage for my parents, so that was easier. And that was every second

week, I would get merchandise, and then at some point, it became

that every week I would get merchandise. And then I

realized that as soon as I

spent all that time for rearranging, there was already the next stuff

coming. And then I realized, I'm in the hamster wheel, and I'm

not coming out. That was the moment where I realized I need to

outsource this shipping and

packing process.

So I researched a little bit where to go. And here in Germany,

we have companies that work with

handicapped people, and

it's quite an easy job, so they like it, and it's easy to explain

and to prepare for other people that maybe have less

skills. So they came over, I explained them what

I needed, and within two weeks, they took

over the whole packing

and storing process, which was a huge,

huge freedom for me. That was fantastic.

So that was one. And before that, I looked

for someone to help me write those invoices. Until today, I'm not

really good with these softwares. Maybe you guys have

fantastic ideas what software to use in order to

have a more easier way of

writing invoices and having an overview of all your orders.

But, yeah, I have another,

like an assistant I've always had, at

some point, from a certain point on, always had an assistant that

helped me with that. And I always try to work

as efficient as possible. So I'm asking for this prepayment for

my clients so that I don't need another accountant to

write invoices and, you know, remind the

people to pay or check if they paid or so on. The

process was, the idea was that people pay,

you see, they paid. Now, you said next day you send out

the stuff so that you don't need to hire another person to

check and to remind and so on. And I always, whenever I

had a peak of activities, I would ask

someone to come and help, but I

wouldn't ask that person to work all the time because it

meant it was too expensive for me, you know?

So rather take persons

to help out doing peaks than having someone that you pay all the

time, unless you can really,

you can pay for it. That makes a lot of sense. And thank

you. Well, I would love to talk about now, if that's okay, is to jump

a little bit and talk about how you acquired the IP

rights, how you brought the factory, because I think I'm right

in saying that the factory had actually stopped production

before you came and restarted. Would you mind telling

us about how that came about, how you made the

decision that that was what you were going to do? Because obviously, that's a huge

step, isn't it? Yeah, it's a huge step.

So the distribution business

was doing really well, and I had

acquired the exclusive distribution rights, you know,

for Europe in the meantime. And

I didn't even have to do this rolling option thing because

I had proven myself and I had a traveled to

the UK to see the old factory and the CEO had come to

Berlin several times and to the trade shows and we

really had a beautiful relationship. And

one day, and that was the second

of, and by the way, the business was doing so, so well

that I decided to close this law firm. Yeah. And have more time

for my family, especially for my kids. I have a handicapped child,

so. So I was really

happy and I felt really lucky.

And I again encouraged other women to do similar

about the business situation in which I was. And so

half a year after I closed down my law firm,

the CEO from Wade calls me and says, I'm really sorry, but we

just closed the factory. And I'm like, why did you

close it? I didn't even understand what he meant. And then he's like,

yeah, we fell into administration

and next to producing the Gluggle Jugs, they were actually

living from producing high quality

ceramic bottles for

expensive drinks like Scotch or whiskey

or gin, like really ware content.

And their main client decided to stop working with them two years

ago. And then they had also corona. And even if the main client gave

them two years to do everything right, it didn't work out.

And they had to fight for administration

and put 140 people

out of job. And that, of course, was a super shock.

But I didn't understand, I still didn't understand how

that could happen because the Gluggle Jug by that

moment was a really popular piece, not only

in Europe, obviously also in the UK. And

I didn't understand why they just increased

the production of the jug. Then

I'm saying to the CEO, this makes no sense. Why don't we

then create a factory that just sells the Gluggle Jugs?

And he said, yeah, I actually thought about buying the rights from the

administrators. And I was like, oh, amazing.

And I thought, I would love to co own the Gluggle

Jug because I've done so much to make it

so known, so popular. And he said,

yeah, okay, let me discuss it with my wife and I get back to you.

But then I didn't hear back from him. And

instead I heard somebody else called me up and said, yeah, he

also is interested in putting a bit. And then I listened to that

person's story and

that also didn't, it didn't sound

the right way, the way that person wanted to do

it. And obviously

the other CEO, which I really, really like, and we have an amazing

relationship, he just had filed for administration with

another company. So I thought, wow, maybe it's going to be difficult

to continue. Who knows?

I was also afraid that somebody could take away this business

from me. I was afraid that somebody could come and. And say,

yeah, we're just going to distribute ourselves into Europe. And in order to

protect my position, I thought, it's

easier to buy this factory. I mean, that's what I thought. It's easier to buy

the factory and find a director that's going to run it

than finding another company that's going to produce the original

Gluggle Jug, because there is no other company producing the

original. I thought

maybe I should just try to buy it

myself and then

reopen it and tell everybody to just continue doing what they've been doing the

last 30 years. I also felt,

you know, I felt really sorry that they lost their jobs because I

had lived from that fish as well. Right. And from their work.

And I always had a very high

feeling of respect and admiration for these

people that are able to create a fish jar with their

hands. Of course they're using a mould. They're not.

But

once I thought about this, I don't

know, in my head, it was not that difficult. I

thought, we just need to reopen the factory. By

the way, sorry I didn't tell you this, but Wade had two factories, one

that produced the scotch bottles and one that

produced only the Gluggle Jugs. So it was really. It was already, if

you want a separate work, a separate factory by itself.

So, in my thoughts, it was easy to just reopen

this Gluggle jug factory and tell everybody to come back and continue do

what they did. I didn't buy the building. I just had to. I mean, I

could not have afforded that, of course. I just, you know,

entered into the lease agreement, and

I don't know, in my head, it was not so

difficult if everybody just keeps doing what they've been

doing the last 30 years. That was my sentence in my

head. And I liked the fact that I.

I own the jug. I like that.

I thought it was a new way to grow and a new

way to get out of my comfort zone.

And I just liked that

story of starting with buying ten fish, and in the

end, the factory that made it.

It's an amazing. That's just a personal thing. It's not so

important, I think, now. But at that time, I thought, it's cool

story. I think it's a cool story. I mean, that's one of the reasons I

invited you onto the podcast, because when we met, I heard the story and just

thought wow. Because, you know, obviously at the

beginning, that was something you probably never even crossed your mind

when you bought those first ten jugs. I never saw

the, saw the need to do it. Never. Yeah. But I didn't want

this thing to die. And I was not sure that the

other, I mean, I'm super sure that the one person who

put a bit from the way he wanted to do it, now that

I've done it for a year, I'm sure this would not have worked. He would

have struggled and the other one, he would have

continued. But also he was,

I don't know, he also was already quite,

you know, old. And I thought, well, then it's gonna

work for a few more years. And then what? You know, then we have same

situation. So I don't know, I thought it's, it's maybe safer

this way. And I must say I was also super naive

because it is,

it is a big thing to, to run a factory.

Yeah. Is that the next point? Yeah, I mean, I was

gonna say you, you own now the IP rights which gluggle job and the

factory. Is that I correct? Yes. I own

the mould, I own the machines

we have. You know, the next day that we signed this,

we rehired 33 workers. We hired a few

more right away that were like the over from the

overhead, everybody from Wade. I took the people from Wade. They were

amazing. Still are amazing. And

I, and ever since, we hired another eleven

people, so we also growing and that is really

good. I made one of the. So

I. Yeah, as soon as we bought it, I

also asked my brother to join me on this adventure

because first of all, he's a super good leader. He's very good with

people. I'm always doing my own little thing. And he's

very good with also guiding people and

there's a lot of experience in there. And

thanks God I did this because it's always good to have a partner

that has skills that you don't have

but if it's one that you don't like my brother,

then it's worth so

much. Because if you are low, then he can take over.

And, you know, if you need to go, if you're busy with something

else, he can always help out the partner. So that's great. But

anyway, so I asked him also to help to join and he luckily

did. And then, so

we flew to the

factory. The first time I flew to sign the

contracts, actually, I flew myself. And it was such

an amazing feeling to enter

this factory and to see all these people that you

only knew from the paper. The former

CEO from Wade that I told you about, he was

so nice. I called him right away when I knew that I would get the

bid. And he said, it's not a problem, don't

worry. And he offered me his help and he helped me till today. I

can always call him when I. When I don't know something. And

so he introduced me into this whole business and explained to me who

is who, who I need to do what, and so on.

And then I flew over and then

I got to know all the staff members

on the shop floor. And that was maybe the most

beautiful moment. To see them and

shaking my hand and thanking me for saving their job.

That was really touching.

And then with the time, the first thing

was obviously to gain the trust of all

the suppliers and the shop floor. So I added a

meeting. I introduced myself. They wanted to know for how long I've been selling the

jug and if I can do it. And I used to be

Wade's biggest client, so that was reassuring for them.

And then we invited all the

suppliers from Wade and we

also gained their trust, introduced us, talked about us

a little. And obviously they didn't like

to perform and

then get money, because some of them had not been paid due to the

administration thing. So we always had to pay upfront.

But today, for instance, it's no longer like that.

Today we have that trust and we have a beautiful relationship with

all our suppliers. And then I also

had an interview with each co worker

and I asked them to tell me if there's anything they would do differently.

Just given the fact that many of them have been working there for

decades. Obviously they knew more things. They

knew, and I didn't know anything. Right. So I was sitting there

with a paper and a pen, and my brother was

interviewing some and I was interviewing others, and I asked them to.

We asked them. We listened to what they said. Yeah. And some of

them had actually a lot of improvement,

like a lot of good advices for us.

And then we implemented them. And after some time,

and every morning we have a

meeting with the management team, no matter

where I am. So it can be here. Off from Berlin.

Every morning I talk to our management

team. And

after half a year, we asked one of the people there

that we knew, everybody liked and everybody

trusted. That used to be the production manager,

James Morgan. We asked him to become our director and he happily

agreed. Luckily for us, I mean,

and also the people the workers were super happy about

that. And yeah, we asked the accountant

of Wade to become our CFO, and he also luckily

agreed and the sales manager of way to become our sales

manager. So Jay Copland and

Kimberly, and they're just

all, they're just amazing people, all fantastic people.

And I'm also happy because they accepted us. You know, even if we

are not from England, they accepted us.

That's amazing. And it sounds like you've retained a lot of this, the original

stuff as well. Yes, only, I mean, again,

we hired more people, and actually more people also

from that were formerly working for Wade, but also some

that we took from, let's say, Emma Bridgewater. There are other

companies in Stoke that are struggling a little. And

we're really happy that we can also

support the city and the people there and keep

alive a craft that I don't know how

long it's going to be around us

and the craft that has been here

for so, so many years that we can still

entertain it. And how do you find

managing a business? Obviously, you're based in Berlin, I assume,

most of the time, because that's where your family are and the factory in

England. Are there any things, any particular

considerations to have when you're managing your business from a bit of a

distance or with technology now, does it not, do you feel it

doesn't really make a difference where people are?

First of all, you have to have people that you really

trust and that you know are capable or that you

can, they

are willing and able to

even to learn with you. Yeah, they're open to learn with

you. You need to have those on

site. There's no question about it.

If you have these ears and eyes and brains

on site and you have a good communication,

then it is possible

to work from a distance. And I would even say

that it's a very healthy thing to work from a

distance. And I'm going to elaborate on this. So, first of all,

thanks to our management team,

meaning the CEO, the

CFO, sales manager, we also have something like a

COO. They're all fantastic. And

also the people that work for us, many of them,

as I mentioned before, had already been working decades for

weight. So they know exactly what they're doing.

And it was important that we

gain their trust. And it was important for me that

they understand that we are all a team and that

the work of every single co worker or

employee of Wade, sorry, of the Gluggle Jug factory, plays

a huge role. And I knew I couldn't do everything I

needed to focus on the sales. And I need someone else to focus

or orchestrate the production. And

I need each single co worker to trust me

that I'm going to make sure that I'm selling the goods

so that I can pay everybody.

And to have that person work on casting

and just focus on casting and not be worried whether tomorrow he

still will have this job or the fataler to focus on

fettling and doing the most beautiful fish they can fattle

and dipa and sprayer and whoever we have there and selector

and person at the kiln. So that was super important for me that

they understand how we work. Every, usually

whenever I'm going there, usually we have a team meeting. If I'm not there,

then James, our CEO, and Jack CFO, have a team

meeting to have the people on board and

know where we are standing, what we achieved and

what we achieved in the last month and what our goals are for the

next month. So that has also created

some kind of bonding with all of us. We

don't put loads of pressure with them,

but of course they need to fulfill certain numbers,

which we need in order to be a vibrant,

vital factory. But

they also know why we

need these numbers to be. They see

the whole picture. And so this already, I think is super

important. Then when you are the

owner of whatever business, you need to know your numbers.

You need to know what's going on in your business. And

that means that you need to spend time on

looking every day or latest every week as

to how your numbers were. And you need to take

the time to collect all this data and to have mechanism

in place to collect data. If you don't know your

numbers, then you don't know where you're standing and you don't know if you,

if you did better or worse than last year or last month.

And maybe you don't even know why you did better or worse because you

don't know how you're doing. So this is absolutely

crucial. Every day we look at the numbers of the pre

day and every Monday we look at the numbers of last week

and we put them apart, these numbers and look into

them through the detail to know how come that day

we didn't do well. What's going on down

to the co worker? How come that his yield is not so good

or that he didn't reach the number? What's going on with him? Can you

have a chat with him? Can you let him know, you know, things like

that? That's the ano, as we say in

German. That's super important. Yeah, know your

numbers. So. Yeah. And then,

obviously, consistency.

Consistency and presence, or consistency in asking. And when

you ask and you don't get an answer right away to, you

know, not forget to re ask the next day to make

the person that works for you understand that that really matters to

you. Yeah, I think these are. If you can.

If you can do this, like, have a good team that you can trust, and

that is, you know,

performing or making sure or detecting if someone is not

performing or something is not performing and fixing that,

coupled with an overview of numbers.

And always what's also important is

that you always try to innovate and to try

to improve. That's also

super important. So not only do you see how are

we going, but where do we want to be tomorrow? Where do we want to

be next month? What are our next milestones?

Yeah, that's also important to look at.

Thank you. And, wow. I was thinking, as you were talking,

obviously, you mentioned at the beginning you had your law firm, but with

your. This business, you've come such a long way

to starting off by yourself,

selling these units to having a whole factory.

That's a lot of change. That's a lot of change. Yeah.

But I have a lot of people that help

me with this. I

couldn't do it by myself, only with that.

Fantastic team. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah.

So I've taken quite a lot of your time already, but if you don't mind,

before we finish, I would love to talk about something different, something

hopefully quite fun to talk about, which is that I saw earlier this

year, Gluggle Jug on the Great Pottery Throw Down. I'd love to know a little

bit about that and how that came about. Just to change the tone completely.

Yeah, please. So, actually, this was just another.

Another coincidence. Yeah. They approached

us, and obviously, the

Gluggle Jug is an iconic piece of british design, and it's

really famous. So many people have it. And so

one day, the production company of the great

prod we throw down called us and ask if they can,

you know, if they can include it in their show. And

then we said, yeah, of course. And then they. They bought

the jugs. And

first of all, we didn't hear a lot from it anymore until it

was broadcast. And then, I mean,

that was actually quite beautiful, because not only was the show really nice

and shows, how difficult it is to make a Gluggle

Jug, but we saw a peak in our online

sales. And then the host, one of the hosts

of the shows, Keith Brymer Jones,

he later then came to visit the

company, the factory, and obviously, we were very proud

of having him over. I wasn't there that day. I

couldn't be in the UK, but the team there was

so happy, and me, of course, so happy that he took the time to come.

It was really nice. That's amazing. Yes. We had

some of these beautiful things. I don't know if you noticed, there is

an advertisement from Google for the Google

lens, and they also just called us or

wrote an email and asked if they could use the Gluggle

Jug in their advertisement. And we were like, yeah,

of course. That would be fantastic. And that was

also nice, but obviously a totally different setting

in comparison to the great part we throw down. Oh, that's all

amazing. And what's. What's next for Gluggle Jugs? But

I guess some of this has been unexpected. So what's next for Gluggle Jugs that,

you know. Well,

the next. You mean, like. So we are constantly

working on colors. That's what we're known for. We

produce the most amazing colors. We work with a fantastic

company. And Stoke, also, so much

expertise and history. Also, this company that I'm talking about

is super old and super nice.

And we always, like, twice

a year, I spend some time there, and we go

about, you know, colors of the year,

and maybe colors that I've seen somewhere

or that merchant have asked me. Shop owners have sometimes also

asked us if we can start with this and that color. And then we

decide on a few. We make trials, and then we come up with a few.

And last week, I went to the factory with my

best friends, and I saw something that's actually not a

color. I cannot tell you too much about it because

it's a beautiful surprise. But I

saw something that was in the

process of being produced, and it looked so beautiful that

we decided to, you know, even if it was

just a random thing in the course of production,

we decided to bring out a certain collection next

spring with something that's. That's.

That has been. That is. That's been unseen so far

on the. On the glycogen. So look out for

that. Yeah. Oh, I'm so excited. I'm so excited to see it. And actually

speaking about your colors when, you know, I saw your display at

top drawer earlier this year, and the colours were what caught my eye from across

the room, because you just have the. Just most wonderful.

Yeah. So many colors and. Yeah, yeah. I love colors. So

beautiful. Yes. Thank you. You saw the lustro

collection, which is all new and shiny,

and it's they're just beautiful. Yeah, they're beautiful. And you go,

can. You can go crazy on colors, right? Especially

when you have control over the production. Like, we can

just go crazy on whatever we want. That's lots of

fun women. Yeah, totally. Well, thank

you so much for all you've shared, Sophie. I have one final question before we

finish, which is, what would your number one piece of advice be for

other product creators? So my

number one piece of advice would be

to check if

whatever you're spending lots of time on is actually

popular or not. Like, and

if you realize that it's not working to get rid

of it as fast as possible. Like, don't

hang in with something that doesn't sell. And no matter how

much you talk about it and how much you show it around,

nobody wants to have. Just don't be in love with your

product that nobody else is in love with. That would

be one piece of advice. And if I can add another

one, it's the one that we spoke earlier about.

Don't be too cheap on yourself. Value your time.

Value your energy. Value your creativity, your

efforts, maybe your life work. Value

this time. And be kind to yourself. You don't work

for other people. You work first of all for yourself

and for your family. And therefore you

can't take yourself out of the calculation.

That's great advice. Thank you so much, Sophie. You're very

welcome. It's nice to talk about all this in a

podcast. It's great to hear it.

Thank you so much for listening. Right to the end of this episode, do you

remember? But that you can get the full back catalog and lots of free resources

on my website, vickywineberg.com. please do remember to rate

and review this episode if you've enjoyed it and also share it with a

friend who you think might find it useful. Thank you again and see you next

week.