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Swaine Adeney Brigg: quintessentially British; globally admired

Dating back to 1750, Swaine Adeney Brigg’s reputation for quality and excellence is long-established. From what started out as a small equestrian whip making business in Piccadilly, London, the brand’s prestige for high-quality, bespoke goods has grown significantly.

Swaine Adeney Brigg, a British manufacturer and retailer of fine, hand-crafted leather goods and umbrellas, offers a vast selection of bespoke products. Over the years, it has designed attaché cases for famous film stars, while the Brigg umbrellas have long been a favourite of the British Royal family. Each new addition to the Swaine Adeney Brigg collection has served to enhance the company’s reputation and its position in the ‘Brand Britain’ movement – attracting customers from all over the world, including the US, South East Asia, Europe and Australia. Swaine Adeney Brigg’s attention to detail is key to the brand’s success. The brand offers bespoke personalisation options to fulfil customer’s individual requirements around the world.

“The phrase ’‘handmade in England’’ is held in extremely high regard within the global marketplace, and is one that sits at the very heart of Swaine Adeney Brigg,” says David Albon, Commercial Director at Swaine Adeney Brigg. “We pride ourselves in creating truly unique designs. As a British manufacturer and retailer, the art of British craftsmanship is something we’re very loyal to. From the colour of the leather, to the material of the lining and our offering of personalised monogram embossing, the service for our leather products is truly unique. The same is true for our Brigg umbrellas, with customers able to select a variety of details, ranging from the colour of the canopy to the type wood used for the handle.”

Keep Calm and…Go Global

In order to provide a premium delivery service to match its fine-quality products, Swaine Adeney Brigg needed a logistics provider with a global reputation to help nurture its relationships with customers overseas. FedEx was a natural choice, and installed the web –based shipping application - FedEx Ship Manager™ - that allows customers to prepare shipments, find rates and transit times and schedule pick-ups. This has helped bolster e-commerce sales abroad.

“As our client list and product collection flourished, speed and quality of service became more important than ever, so we wanted a provider that could deliver to the highest of standards. By going above and beyond a simple A to B delivery service, FedEx has firmly established itself as a valuable extension of our company and now represents us globally,” says David.

Swaine Adeney Brigg had a number of existing systems in place looking after everything from order generation to tracking each with different, and often conflicting, processes. Yet in under eight weeks, FedEx fully integrated and streamlined its systems with no dip in activity. Now Swaine Adeney Brigg can ship to customers near and far as soon as the final stitch is sown.

It is of paramount importance that the fine-quality products are handled well and arrive in the same condition as when they leave the UK. With many of the products crafted from leather, they can be easily damaged if not cared for in the correct way. As well as offering next business day and day/time-definite services, FedEx also handles the return process so any international shipments can be brought back to the UK for restoration and then sent back to the customer. “This means if an umbrella comes to us from Japan needing a new canopy, or a briefcase from North America needing new clasps, the item can enter the country as a temporary import and be relieved of tax”, explains David. “FedEx seamlessly orchestrates all of this for us and our customers never cease to be amazed at this capability; FedEx embodies our premium service from start to finish and respects the nature of our products.”

Making Britain ’Great’ overseas

With 38% of Swaine Adeney Brigg’s shipments now going to the US alone, the company’s exporting activity is leading its growth.

“FedEx has given us the confidence to expand our global reach because we know we’re able to provide our excellent level of service near and far,” states David. “We’ve overcome the challenges we experienced with other providers, and now with the help of FedEx are further establishing our presence and looking more strategically at current and growing markets.”

With a focus on e-commerce and growing its social media persona, Swaine Adeney Brigg is primed to flourish in markets near and far. It has its eye on the expanding into China and considering the reputation of Brand Britain has never been stronger[1], 2016 is set to be the year for the genteel.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by FedEx Express and FedEx UK .