We don’t know about you, but we always get a little bit nostalgic this time of year. With the rush of Christmas slowly coming to an end and the New Year within sight, we finally have the chance to look back on what has been an amazing 2018.
It’s been a great year for awards, starting the year with being voted as ‘highly commended’ for equipment in Restaurant Magazine’s Chef Choice Awards. We also featured in Ward Hadaway’s Fastest 50 Growing Companies in the North East, as well as featuring on the FT Future 100 list for making an impact in our industry. We love what we do and it’s great to know you do too!
We put on a ‘Steamed Punk’ show at Table’s first ever exhibition at Pillar Hall, Olympia. We showcased some of our luxury brands, including Mepra and Figgjo. We also hosted a stand for ‘Talent for Tableware’ – where we searched for the most talented craft producers and ceramists. We met some amazing people and have carried on collaborating with some of the winners (Linda Bloomfield was a particular favourites).
We also launched the highly anticipated Stone Notebook! We were honoured to be able to bring this amazing product into the industry and chefs went crazy for it! Who can blame them, this notebook was designed specifically for chefs with waterproof pages, lay-flat designs and magnets that stick to stainless steel surfaces. You can get your hands on one here.
Spring saw the launch of our Portfolio 4. A lot of hard work went into this edition to make it different to anything else out there. We introduced new brands and worked with some of the best chefs in the industry to bring you the most outstanding food photography and menu stories. We also hosted two showroom ‘drop-in’ days, with drinks and snacks to celebrate the launch! You can get your copy here.
We were also honoured to be asked by Designers LXA to put a concept together for one of their stands at Hotelympia in March. This was a really fun and exciting project to be involved in.
Can you remember the summer heat wave and the whole excitement around the World Cup, well at Goodfellows we were busy planning our showroom move! We had out-grown our Plate Cave at Baker Street and moved to much bigger place at 20 Little Portland Street in June! The space used to be an office, so we completely stripped it back and created a completely new look that our customers would love. You can read more about our showroom design here. And of course, to celebrate our move we hosted a ‘showroom-warming’ party. The night was a huge success with guests enjoying pies by Calum Franklin, sweet treats by Claire Clark and our very own Portland Street beer by Fullers! Thank you to everyone for making this a night to remember! You can book an appointment here.
We love to tell you about everything we’ve been up to, but there are things we can’t share with you straight away. This includes our involvement with TV shows. This summer, we were busy working behind the scenes with some of the chefs who competed on The Great British Menu. We love helping the chefs come up with concepts that will suit the brief, we can get really creative and we often create bespoke products or source unusual items. Check out some of these below – which is your favourite? See below by Selin Kiazim.
You may have also spotted some of our products on Master Chef and James Martin Saturday Morning. We are also a fan of print and have featured in Tableware International Magazine (our MD has a monthly column, which is a great read if you are looking for tableware and business advice!), Supper Magazine and Savour Magazine (pictured below).
Throughout the year, we were also working behind the scenes on our sister project, Goodfellows at Home, which is a website for homecooks, foodies and people who want restaurant quality tableware for their home. The website launched in July, go check it out here. We also did some on-location photography for this site. Our MD’s dog, Oscar, was the perfect model, see below!
This has also been the year of new brands, as we introduced Linda Bloomfield, Mud Australia, Aquarbor, Mesapiu, Kollers and Ceramiche Bucci into our mix, as well as lots of new additions to your favourite brands (we would love to know your 2018 favourite).
Each year we put together competitions to try and give back to our customers. We have got to admit, every year your food images get better and better and this has been the best year yet! Competition has been so fierce! We are currently looking out for our Wall of Fame 2018 Champion to end the year with, find out more information here.
Hope you are all still with us! Sorry for the extra-long blog, but so much has happened this year! Now is the perfect time to thank all of our amazing customers and team for making this year one of our best. We couldn’t do it without you!
Thanks for continuing to inspire us. We are currently working on lots of exciting projects (shh), which we can’t reveal yet, but there are a few surprises coming in 2019!! See you then!
