Prestigious Textiles

[applemoon]

Hi all, I am about to venture into the world of fabric supplying having only done the sewing bit up until now. I have opened an account with Chatham-Glyn which seemed like a good place to start and I have a rep from Prestigious coming round on Mon 3rd.

I'd like to be properly prepared so that I don't end up buying books that I can't sell from (being a bit green around the gills!!) What are their most popular of their fabrics? and am I right in thinking that they have a book club kind of scheme that helps you spread the cost of the books? I don't have a huge amount of money to throw at it but do feel that it's the only way to make my business more profitable.

Any other pearls of wisdom you can give me before my meeting would be great.

Many thanks,

[jane]

Re: Prestigious Textiles

Hi all
Like Applemoon I'm thinking of going into fabrics so have the same questions plus could someone clarify "piece price" and "cut price" for me. I'm guessing cut price is what you pay if you're buying less than a whole roll and piece price is the £/m if you buy the whole roll.....but how do you know how big the roll is - it doesn't say in the Chatham-Glyn catalogue.
Thanks
Jane

[Louise]

Re: Prestigious Textiles

Hello both.

Roll sizes can vary fabric by fabric - usually around the 30-40m mark, so you have to ask!

As to which books to buy, it might be good to ask the rep. to show you their best sellers to start with and see if you like them. It is common to have to commit to buying a certain number of books up to a given value. Most fabric companies have a scheme where you pay a monthly installment over a couple of years, then you can add new books to it if you wish.

If you don't want to be tied to one fabric manufacturer, then companies like Chatham-Glyn will sell you individual fabric books/hangers for a one-off payment, rather than opening an account and paying monthly.

If you can, check out any stores near you to see what they sell - especially discount ones like Dunelm, as you will never compete with them on fabric price (but you will easily outstrip them on make-up options and quality).

[sas]

Re: Prestigious Textiles

Hi

Prestigious textiles do a COLOUR BOX which consists of 8 books covering selections of many of their popular pattern books, and each book represents different colours. I have just purchased their new one (costs £300 plus VAT) and the fabrics will be available for at least two years. I bought one about three years ago and still use the books occasionally. I still buy individual pattern books, but I found the last box I had was a very good investment indeed. It does seem a huge outlay, but if you start selling your own fabrics, you will soon reap the benefits and your box will be paid for in no time. For this and various other reasons, I no longer use customer's own fabric (except for individual romans).

Once you start investing in pattern books, you will wonder why you hadn't done it sooner.

Sas

[Karen C]

Re: Prestigious Textiles

I too have the Presitgious Colour Box, along with some other books of theirs. Colour box is brilliants, it consists of 8 different colour books and I believe contains upwards of 800 fabrics. I find this a great thing to show clients, even if its just to get an idea of their style / taste.

The only thing I would say is - yes speak to the rep and see which ones are the best sellers and don't be rushed into making a decision. You have to think about what is best for the area you are in - whether modern contemporary prints are going to be what you sell alot of or whether you live out in the country where florals and leaves weaves and prints are widely used. Think about what you make up now!

[applemoon]

Re: Prestigious Textiles

Thank-you all for the advice. I think it's probably the colourbox that I'd be most interested in. I will report back.

Being new to all this I have made my first error. I had my first order for a fabric - Chatham-Glyn Mombasa . I looked at the cut price of £7.95 and offered it to the client for £10.99 pm. I thought I was making a healthy profit of £3 pm. BUT I forgot the VAT which for 12m was £16.70 so I made a grand total of £19.79. I could kick myself. I will try to be a bit more savvy the next time...

[Mairi]

Re: Prestigious Textiles

Remember to add on for ur carraige as well...I often get caught out with this especially if only buying 2 or 3 metres for blinds I find that my profit gets eaten up in the carraige charge. If u don't want to show ur carraige on ur quote make sure u work it into labour costs or somewhere so u don't lose out.

[applemoon]

Re: Prestigious Textiles

I sometimes remember to add carriage, and you're right you can lose your profit easily by forgetting. Another lesson learnt.

[applemoon]

Re: Prestigious Textiles

Well I had my meeting with the Prestigious rep, and am opening a pro-forma account to start with and I'm gonna invest in the colour box. A lot of the designs he showed me were comparable to what my clients have chosen over the past year so I am confident that I can get some sales. I am a little nervous about dishing out that much money but it's the only way that my business will progress to the next stage. I have 2 new clients too that both need fabric so fingers crossed.

[jane]

Re: Prestigious Textiles

Good luck Kim. I've bought some Chatham-Glyn books for the same reason. CG gave me a small discount for ordering 4 books & 1 waterfall. They also sent 2 waterfalls & a 1 book of older designs FOC. Let's hope the orders now come flooding in.

[suel]

Re: Prestigious Textiles

Hi Kim,

Good Luck with the Colour Box 4. I have had quite a lot of success with No. 1 and 3, but have most of the books contained in the New Box so decided not to buy it as it was quite an investment. I did buy a couple of other new books yesterday, Notting Hill and Country Retreat both books like chalk and cheese but need to have coverage in all areas. I was more impressed with their offering this time than Autumn when I was hard pushed to find anything I wanted.

Prestigious offer a good free of charge cuttings service - you can order up to 6 cuttings FOC and they will even send directly to your customer - (saves hanging on to the quote until the samples arrive). Also you can order for 50% discount a half metre (carriage free) sample which comes on a roll, and can also be sent direct to your customer.

Some of the fabrics come in quite small pieces i.e. 20M so ALWAYS ask what size they are, as it is often cheaper to buy more than you need and keep in stock. I always work out the break even amount before I phone to order. I would also recommend asking before you quote if the fabric is in stock - sometimes they are not, and the lead times can be quite long (I have just lost an order for 30M because the fabric was not going to be available until end of April). Having said that they do offer a good service, as do Chatham Glyn and the prices are sensible with both companies. I have said before, once you have a decent range of fabrics that you can supply I think you can justify adding a surcharge if a client brings their own fabric, although I waived it in the example above, clearly it was not my customers fault that the fabric was out of stock, so I took a bit of a financial hit, as I could not offer her an alternative.

Sue.