An Ode To Summer
It’s on ongoing joke between Lach (other B&P co-founder) and I, that each year our business grows, the Summers become busier and we get less time at the beach, enjoying all our beautiful products we produce.
Somehow, we thought as this business grew, we’d be somewhere in the Mediterranean for most of the Summer, drinking Aperol Spritz’ with our families, infrequently checking emails.
It may sound like I’m complaining, but although we underestimated the work this business would require, we also underestimated the reward & satisfaction this business gives us day in day out. We simply love what we do.
This Summer saw our business focus heavily on … You! (our customers). We worked endlessly to implement a comprehensive return policy, state of the art customer service, a robust loyalty program (AKA Pleasure Points), exclusive SMS community and fast, effective shipping.
As we move into Fall, it’s our time to reset. Personally, I love this time of year. The beaches clear out, the water is still very warm (in Calif.), our focus as a business shifts to the upcoming year, and I’ve never been so excited to release a new collection.
2023 encompasses a huge evolution for B&PCo. as we expand focus from the beach to the outdoors. Our product team has worked for 3 years with a new fabric mill to execute a whole new recipe in commercial grade acrylic canvas, that will be utilized across our 400-piece collection.
It’s by far, our biggest and best collection to date, with 5x new categories and a lead new color story which we believe to be our all-time favorite.
More & more I’ve been thinking about our company mission “To make the world’s best Beach Umbrella..”.
This Summer, someone from Louis Vuitton called me for custom LV Umbrellas for forty-odd coastal stores of theirs. After almost hanging up on them as spam risk, somehow, it was real & it all came to fruition. To our team at B&PCo., we believe we have accomplished our mission set out 5 years ago. Who greater than Louis Vuitton could reach out? I’ve had some very exciting phone calls in this business over the years, but that was truly up there.
Over the coming months we’ll be re-setting our business goals and mission, focused on the outdoors with product, our customers & social responsibility in mind.
Even though we have some of the best sustainable initiatives in place (no plastic packaging!) as a business, we haven’t spoken about sustainability much at all. For many of us here at B&PCo., we believe this is simply our duty as business operators in 2022, to be more conscious & respectful to the environment through better business practices. However, we all agree there is nothing sustainable about freighting your goods all around the world. There are talks to offset ocean freight carbon, and we will be the first to join these participating freight lines when the time comes.
For this reason, we feel strongly about not leading with sustainability messaging as a reason to purchase Business & Pleasure Co. We’ll be transparent with our audience and we hope our customers feel encouraged to purchase a superior product, much cuter than anything on the market, while trusting there are good hearts and thoughtful practices behind this modern brand.
We all need sources of joy and inspiration, and I hope we’re providing this for you in some small way, whether it be through our product or the amazing creative our team puts out daily.
Thank you if you are still reading! I will be in touch during the Holidays. Thank you again for your support.
Ollie Edwards
Co-Founder & President.
