As a longtime trailblazer on environmental matters in the greeting card industry, plus a leading light in the campaign for greater Sepsis awareness, Sue Morrish, co-owner of Newton Abbot-based The Eco-friendly Card Company/Glebe Cottage is used to juggling. Now, during lockdown she has added in homeschooling, profusive cake making and egg collecting! Here she reveals the new daily routine as well as her views on the role social media is playing as well as how important sustainability will be viewed after Covid-19.
How do you start the day? “Our day starts with feeding the chickens before breakfast – their arrival, like us subscribing to deliveries from the milkman were well-timed additions to our life that started just before Covid-19 hit. Quality time with our ‘lovely ladies’ (the chickens not the milkman) has definitely been the best thing about lockdown. They have been a welcome distraction, even though they have a tendency to escape into the field at the bottom of the garden which is currently populated by gorgeous red South Devon bullocks.
By 8:30am it’s school time for my 8-year old son, Ollie. We’ve developed a pattern where I home-school Ollie in the mornings and go to the office in the afternoons. Caroline Twigger, our office manager, customer services extraordinaire and all round wonderful person, is mostly working remotely from home so each morning monitors emails and deals with new website account requests, while I try to get my head around ‘fronted adverbials’ (?!) and how to do joined-up handwriting properly. It’s not all hard work as his school has been reading Charlie Mackesy’s book, ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse’ which is especially poignant at the moment.
What role has social media played for you in this? “Social media has been really important, helping us communicate with our customers – especially in letting people know we are still open and able to despatch orders.
In our lockdown routine we always stop halfway through the morning for a tea and toast break – the day seems to be continually punctuated by the need to feed my boys who are constantly hungry! While the children check for eggs I take the opportunity to monitor our social media pages – I try and post a new card image each day with a simple “Good Morning” message as well as features focusing on specific artists.
Social media also helps us understand a little of what our retailers who are still open are going through – many of our stockists are in rural areas and I’ve been in awe of how they have been serving their communities and enabling people to get essential supplies. My Facebook page’s feed is often full of announcements like ‘We have flour today!’ or arrangements for home deliveries. People running post offices, community shops and farm shops have provided a lifeline to their communities – and I only hope that the public continue to appreciate and support these independent retailers when things get back to ‘normal’ – whenever and whatever that may be.”
A long-time industry campaigner and trailblazer for upping the environmental credentials of our sector, how do you think things will be on this front post pandemic crisis? “It’s interesting to see how many people are reflecting on how our environment and wildlife are benefitting from the dramatic change in lifestyle due to lockdown. I was struck by a recent tweet by Richard Walker, managing director of Iceland Foods who said, “Covid-19 is changing the way we all think about the world. It offers us the once in a lifetime chance of a greener, healthier and more resilient future.” I think, if anything, sustainability is even more important than before.”
Your office routine: “After a quick lunch I walk to the office – which is a 15 minute ‘commute’ over the fields into town (Newton Abbot). It’s been strange being aware of spring flowers coming and going and not being able to go out and photograph them. There are numerous lovely gardens in the South-West, many of which are our stockists, all of whom have been closed. Tourism is such a big part of the economy here so it is a worry wondering how many businesses can survive the lockdown. My route through the town centre to our office is planned to avoid the lengthy queue of masked shoppers outside Asda. The high street itself is eerily quiet, my footsteps echoing loudly as I walk along. Seagulls eye me suspiciously – it’s their patch now – last week I even saw a kestrel pursuing a pigeon in the town centre – it feels a bit wild-west!
In the office, dealing with orders is the first priority – the first week of lockdown was a big shock- every email another postponed or cancelled order – I don’t even want to think about how dire our sales figures were for April. We were lucky to have a very good start to the year, with our best-ever Spring Fair, which has really helped us out. We’ve seen a big surge in orders direct from the public, especially from people who are self-isolating. It’s not a part of our business we normally promote, always preferring to direct people to our independent retailers across the UK, but while so many stockists are closed we are keen to help out anyone who wants to buy our cards. Of course anyone who chooses to send one of our cards not only promotes The Eco-friendly Card Co but also one of the many artists we represent too.”
How’s trade now? “We have seen an upturn in trade orders in May, and an increase in enquiries about selling online, especially for notecards. I’ve also noticed when people ring into the office how they want to chat far more than normal, it’s a strange time for everyone and I’m missing not being able to visit our stockists.”
The role of cards during this time? “It’s noteworthy how many ‘Hug for you’ cards we’ve sold – we may not be able to hug each other in person so I guess sending a ‘hug’ by card is the next best thing. The orders that are almost all ‘Sympathy’ and ‘Thinking of you cards’ are most poignant. It’s a reminder that behind every little folded square of paper someone chooses to buy from us is a human story – the need to reach out and comfort each other, despite the distance, to let people know they are not alone. Now, more than ever, I am grateful to be involved in an industry that, at its core, is all about relationships. I can’t help feeling that our little contribution to that is a real privilege.”
Your lockdown life new interests? “Any pie-in-the-sky ideas I had at the beginning of lockdown about being able to take up a new hobby, or learn how to crochet etc. went quickly out the window. Juggling home-schooling and running the business is more than enough – however I have noticed we have started cooking a lot more cake – I suppose we do have a lot of eggs to use now and to quote Charlie Mackesy’s book, “Now and again, the only real answer to anything, said the mole, is cake.” That resonates with me right now!”
On a sad note…“It was with great sadness that our long-standing greeting card sales rep, Penny Maggs, passed away in April, after a short battle with cancer. Penny had been working as South-West sales rep for us but had been involved in sales for over 30 years, including time with Piccadilly Greetings and Judges postcards. Penny was such a much-loved member of our team, who had been working for us, and with many of our customers, for 15 years. We know she will be greatly missed by many people.”
Top: Sue Morrish with some of the company’s products.
