12 Craft Buddy celebrates Craft Buddy has been named Owner-managed Business of the Year at the Thames Valley SME Growth 100 award ceremony that was hosted at the Bremont Headquarters in Henley-on-Thames London earlier this month. Co-founders Dino and Gary Wadhwani were thrilled to receive the award and spoke of their excitement at continuing to grow their business. Founded by Gary and Dino, Craft Buddy combined the Wadhwani Brothers’ experience in arts & crafts and sourcing products to establish the business. The company has been expanding exponentially in the past 10 years. The pandemicinduced growth and the strategy to venture into licensed business have fuelled the company’s growth immensely. With a company team of over 30 people and warehouses in both the UK and Germany, Craft Buddy has not only become one of the leading arts & crafts suppliers in the UK, its distribution network covers most of the EU markets, Middle East, North America and Asia Pacific region as well. They’re also an official licensee of numerous world-renowned brands, including Disney, Star Wars, Marvel, Peter Rabbit, The Smurfs and their latest additions: Paddington and L.O.L. Surprise! The judges were impressed with Craft Buddy’s passion and commitment in a challenging sector, as well as their pragmatic and timely strategies. They noted the company’s genuine bootstrapped approach as an ideal lesson in how to navigate the myriad channels of retail. What was started by two brothers in their aunt’s house is now winning new customers in over 30 countries with their innovative brand and licence portfolio. “For a company to keep growing, we understand the importance of diversification. But we certainly did not lose sight to of our core target market” Dino said, “We’ve worked very hard to keep innovating and present new products from our various brands including Crystal Art, Forever Flowerz, Paint By Numb3res, Craft Buddy Home & Craft Buddy Puzzles. TV shopping is one of our key retail channels and we’ve been performing exceptionally well with Create & Craft TV in the UK and QVC in Germany.” For more information, please visit www.craftbuddyltd.co.uk Gift Of The Year Award winners The 2023 winners of the coveted Gift Of The Year Awards have been announced. The Royal Lancaster Hotel hosted the black-tie Gift Of The Year awards ceremony which saw retailers, suppliers and industry experts gather together to celebrate the year’s best gifts. Winners were crowned across 20 highly competitive gifting categories which showcase a cross section of the industry’s most creative, new-to-the-market products, with the highly practical Fabulously Flat Paper Pens winning the coveted Judges Choice Award as well as the Cards, Wraps & Stationery category. The Gift of the Year Awards, now in its 43rd year, recognises the gifting industry’s most sensational new products each year. The competition gives a platform to all entrants, elevating businesses through exposure at trade shows, including Spring Fair which hosted the 2023 judging, website, brochures, and social channels. In addition, being crowned a category winner grants industry-wide recognition and previous entrants have seen a huge boost to their sales and revenue often going on to become bestsellers particularly in the lead up to Christmas. For full details of the Gift Of The Year Awards winners and to enter for the 2024 awards please visit the website: www.giftoftheyear.co.uk
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