When my parents Julia And Jeremy asked me to sum up 25 years of Hippychick, from my own personal perspective, I soon realised that we were coming at the topic from very different standpoints.
They (even though it probably doesn’t feel like it) have had a previous life outside of the business which mum founded in 1999. Yet for me and my siblings Olly and Sophie, we cannot separate our lives from Hippychick. We have been early stage models, container unloaders, and occasional blog writers amongst a myriad of other things. Hippychick has provided a constant stream of entertainment – which is why it’s time to reflect on the company that’s always been in the background and more than occasionally in the foreground of our lives for 25 years now.
The start of the company and subsequent years in Spaxton aren’t memories that are readily available to me so for this stage of the business I’m relying entirely on second hand information! That said, I am reliably informed that my parents had no phones, no delivery van, and were regularly the scourge of the local post office causing enormous queues by sending orders out.
My first memories of Hippychick start in Bridgwater, when what is now still a confusing warehouse was truly labyrinthine to myself as a child. I remember playing hide and seek amongst racks of the (now sadly no longer sold) Shoo Shoo’s (small leather children’s shoes available in all sorts of shapes and sizes).
Understandably, my halcyon days are remembered a little differently from Mum and Dads’ perspectives… the scale up from home operation to a commercial premises is the sign of an evolving business and yet it ushered in some of the trickiest times the business has ever seen.
The move in 2003 meant costs massively increased just as my sister joined the family. Pure exhaustion and a sense of battling on every front are the overriding emotions I pick up on when discussing these years with Mum.
Middle Years (2005 – 2010)
Growing the business meant endless trade shows all over the country and even further afield. A practice that still fills the business calendar to this day.
2005 was a successful year with the relationships fostered during the early years starting to bear fruit; the result of which being that Hippychick became a supplier to major national retailers such as Boots, Mothercare and Tesco.
Mum and Dad put the expansion down to versatility and continual adaptation; picking products for the future rather than just sticking with a set list of bestsellers. Relationships with a wide variety of suppliers and customers meant that they could find formulas and ways of working to suit each individual need. Accompanying this was a switch from analogue business practices into the digital age. A process not merely concerned with starting to use email as a work tool but centered around foresight in becoming an early adopter of Amazon - a then relatively small e-commerce platform.
Industry recognition started to follow this expansion with success at national and regional awards and I vividly remember feeling a mixture of pride alongside confusion as to why my mother was going to be speaking on the radio and had her photo in the paper.
Growing Pains (2011)
In 2011, Dad’s love of adventure sports catches up with him in Nepal and he crashes out of the sky whilst paragliding. It’s an accident which doubly affects family life as it knocks half of the ruling coalition out of work. However, whilst he’s incapacitated for 5 months the business goes through one of its most successful periods, winning more and more industry awards. Whether this is the universe’s idea of good karma or something more easily solved is still debated to this day.
Challenges (2013 -2020)
Trademark Incident
I think I started to appreciate some of the random vagaries of entrepreneurship when Mum and Dad told us a container had been seized in China. A Trademark Troll (apparently a real term) had claimed the Hippychick trademark abroad and consequently had rights to a container full of stock that was urgently needing to be sent out to our waiting customers. £30,000 of stock was lost and never recovered, which was just the start of an 8-year saga which cost a huge amount of time, energy, and money. A painful lesson in international business.
Brexit
Undoubtedly for a small business heavily dependent on shipping to and from Europe, Brexit has provided, and continues to provide, a multitude of challenges.
Currency fluctuations alongside huge volatility in shipping and transport rates have been the catalyst for near disaster more than once.
Ukraine
More currency fluctuations and shipping turmoil come as a result of the war in Ukraine.
However, I think the enduring Hippychick memory from this period is when Mum and Dad managed to organise a Hippychick branded 40ft lorry full of supplies to go to Ukraine. Dad drove there and back and there was a tangible sense of being able to use a long existing knowledge of trade routes and contacts for positive change. It made me so proud.
Many things have ensured that the business’ longevity haven’t changed; the Hippychick office still contains many of the familiar faces from my childhood (a particular shout out to Steve, Rose, Scott, Sarah, Alan, and Mike) who all have an incredibly detailed knowledge of the industry and without whom the business wouldn’t exist. Products may change but the commitment to getting orders out as soon as possible remains to this day. Dad can often be caught blowing up the new Crocodile Creek Soft Footballs until 1am at home.
I will never be able to capture the genuine pleasure as well as the pain that accompanies the endeavour of 25 years in business. That said, the theme running throughout Hippychick has been one of resilience.
