157 COMPANY PROFILE An eye for aesthetics JEWN UK Founder Nigel Mitchell documents the company’s evolution since its inception in 1996, and how’s its managing to weather the COVID-19 storm When did you start up and why? I started trading in 1996 as JEWN UK as the agency for Enny Handbags of Italy. Very soon the agency had increased to include brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Claudio Ferrici and The Bridge. What prompted you to launch the business? In 2009 I started to work with my father at Sirco Leatherwares with the intention of taking the business over when he decided to retire. However, unfortunately due to him becoming very unwell Sirco was closed down and the brand names were then incorporated into JEWN UK Limited, which kept continuity of trading with retailers and factories. What challenges have you overcome since the company’s launch? Clearly the most challenging period has been 2020 and 2021 maintaining the business through the COVID era. Luckily JEWN UK has always been profitable so we were able to ride out the worst of the restrictions and have maintained good stock levels. Tell us about your product offering. We offer a range of bright coloured leather bags and accessories that retail from £14.99 to £165. These have proven to be very popular from the day we launched them and the range has grown massively due to demand. In addition, we also run a range of fashionable PU bags, including our ever popular washed PU range, which year after year
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