Sunday, May 6, 2012

Celebrating 5 Years - and Our New Office in the Lunaverse!

We're ecstatic to be celebrating our 5th birthday! Looking back, I can't believe how far we have come since our nail-biting start delivering to the first 4 stores in Vancouver who dared to take a chance on us. Now, we have over 140 retailers across North America and beyond, adding new stores each week. 


 Our story is a familiar one with our customers: I'm a mum who had used bamboo for years; and after a year of sourcing, found a supplier for bamboo fabric and created my own line of bamboo baby products to spread the word about bamboo to other parents. 


 Bamboobino took off faster than I imagined. Our extensive media coverage caught me by surprise and thrust me, a mum who would have otherwise been perfectly happy plugging away in the background, into the limelight. However, I was happy to be an ambassador of sorts for bamboo. I am thrilled that bamboo has now become a widely available sustainable choice for families, and that Bamboobino has become a trademarked, nationally recognized brand. Our charity panda bear, Inda, named for my daughter, continues to raise funds for charity every quarter. Our quality products, social responsibility and commitment to sustainability continue to attract media attention but also keeps us in check; and in everything we do, integrity is key. 


 In the last couple of months we have been busy setting up our new office in Vancouver. Our friends and unofficial mentors Madeleine Shaw and Suzanne Siemens from Lunapads had recently moved to a bigger office, and with some extra space, invited me to share their space. I admit I hesitated at first; after all, I had really enjoyed working from home. But I had outgrown my home office, and as Suzanne encouraged me with these words of wisdom, "It is hard to grow if you don't make room for the roots to spread," I took the plunge and replied "Why not!" So, while our office is not quite ready for drop-in shopping, it is available as a local pickup (by appointment, at 3433 Commercial St) if you bought something from our website. 


 With all that's going on, we're featuring a contest on Yoyomama to giveaway $150 of Bamboobino goodies, including several of our newest products. We also have a sale coming up next week! As you may already know our sales are infrequent and unpredictable - well here is your heads up and get ready to stock up! 


 Finally, thank you, to all our wonderful and loyal fans, friends, customers, retail partners and suppliers. Without you, Bamboobino wouldn't be possible.


Blessings,
Sharon