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Well hello – here we are at the end of August. The most exciting thing to report is that with EU regulatory approval, we have finally been able to deliver mifold booster seats to the entire world! 45,000 have made their way by ship, road and air to the US, Europe, South America, Africa and Asia where they have been received most favourably. In fact, mifold booster seats are now being used by children in 136 different countries – we think that that is quite an achievement in the space of 13 months when our campaign began!
EU mifold bottom label showing the ECE regulatory sticker
The team has been spread out across the world too. Jon has been in the States and in Europe compiling our crash test data (which you will be please to know is excellent) and attending car seat conferences such as “Kidz in Motion” in Florida.
Jon presenting to hundreds of Child Passenger Safety Technicians at the Kidz in Motion Conference in Florida
Mark, our CMO has spent much of the summer in the States consolidating our eCommerce presence. As a result of his efforts, mifold is now live on Amazon, Babies R Us, Rightstart and Giggle websites; with more coming. 73% of the ratings we have received so far on Amazon have been 5 stars, in fact on average we have received a 4.7 out of 5 star rating – not bad going!
mifold Grab-and-Go booster seat live on the Giggle website
Ken, our VP Business Development has closed exclusive distributor agreements with partners in Canada, the UK, Hong Kong, Israel, Chile and Taiwan. Well done Ken! We have Ken's world map and we are adding pins with each signed agreement ... we better buy some more pins!
Tal, our VP Research and Development is currently in China at the factory working on several new mifold products and innovations – it’s all very hush hush for now but I promise to fill you in on these when I can – watch this space! In the meantime, here is the new coloured packs coming off the production line in the factory.
Davide continues to manage the mifold image and maintain our facebook presence answering thousands of questions and comments every week. He also managed to squeeze in a trip to Italy to see his new nephew. Congratulations!
Davide and his new nephew ... err Davide II (the sequel)
Rachel and I continue to plough through every customer enquiry and are continually amazed by the range of questions that can be asked about a 25 x 12 x 4cm plastic object (Sorry Jon if I’ve simplified the beautifully engineered piece of plastic that we lovingly call mifold too much). I can't believe it's already a year since I joined the mifold team ... here is the first photo we took when I moved into our original one-room office. We have come a long way!
The early days in the old mifold office
Rachel also had a starring role in the new “How to use mifold” video which will be launched next month. Interestingly, Jon seemed to require more make up than she did during filming. She is obviously a natural on screen.
Robert our COO has been flitting between our office, Canada, China and the US organizing delivery logistics and he is the one to thank for the actual delivery of each and every mifold seat. Luckily he pays good attention to detail and there haven’t been too many delivery cock ups. (Which is lucky as Rachel, Davide and I don’t like sorting these out!)
Robert's shipments ready to go
As everyone keeps reminding me, I have been out of the office on annual leave for a couple of weeks but I know they secretly missed me (actually, I’m not sure if they even noticed I had gone.) I came back to an empty pen pot, full garbage bin, empty fridge and very messy office but don’t worry, after a couple of minutes everything was returned to order.
The offices themselves have been expanded – in fact they have doubled in size. We now have a store room and space for all of us to sit down and most importantly a proper mifold sign on the door. Life is good.
Finally a sign on the door ... now you can find us, please come and visit
The whole team is very excited to be going to one of the biggest kids trade shows next month in Cologne, Kind and Jungend. This is the single most important event of our year. We have an absolutely amazing stand and are hoping to generate quite a lot of business as well as some great memories and anecdotes.
You will have to wait for my next blog where any juicy gossip from the trip will obviously be shared. Personally at the age of 46, I can’t wait to share 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom with 7 other people (no offence intended….)
See you in September….
