Macmillan Charity Fashion Show!

Following on from Goose Island’s successful fashion shows held for the Women’s Institute at the end of April, we then participated in a fashion event in aid of Macmillan Cancer Care held at Mamma Mia’s in Swansea on the 2nd June. 

Goose Island loves taking part in such popular events and help to raise money for people in Swansea.

Here are some photographs from the event! x

 

 

 

Goose Island’s Managing Director wins at the IoD Wales Awards

Goose Island’s Managing Director, Karen Hutchings, has been running Goose Island for over 20 years, but did you know that Goose Island is a family business? Karen works hard to run Goose Island alongside her husband, Peter, and they have other family members employed in the organisation.

Karen’s hard work for Goose Island’s family business was recognised on May 15th when she was announced the winner of the ‘Director in a Family Business’ category at the Wales Institute of Directors Awards in Cardiff.

The Wales IoD Awards take place every year to celebrate the very best in Welsh business, and highlight the hard work, innovation, and determination of the managers and directors that consistently put the effort in to motivate staff, open new channels of training and communication, and generally build the business that they are so passionate about. Unique business achievements across the country are celebrated, while bringing together people from across a huge variety of different industry sectors, and recognising their important contribution to the Welsh economy.

The first female chair of the Institute of Directors, Lady Barbara Judge, gave a speech at the awards lunch ceremony that highlighted her priorities of working towards gender equality in the boardroom and engaging more and more women in key business roles. Economy Minister, Edwina Hart, was also at the awards ceremony to provide support and encouragement to the nominees.

Alongside Karen winning her award in the ‘Director in Family Business’ category, two other fellow Swansea business women were also announced winners of their respective categories on the day.

In light of the comments made by chair Lady Barbara Judge, and the high competition from male business leaders, the three Swansea business women succeeded in highlighting the importance of women in business leadership roles.

All of the team at Goose Island are very proud of Karen’s success, and we know that deserves recognition for everything she does for Goose Island. Congratulations Karen!

Swansea City Centre Upbeat Despite Recent Closures

Swansea city centre has faced some tough times in the recent economical climate, and as the Co-operative store on the corner of Portland Street and The Kingsway is closing its doors this week, it would seem that the city centre is still suffering.

The Evening Post reports that the Co-operative store, which was once the home to Mothercare and C&A, will be empty once again on Saturday. The same article also reflects on the recent closures of Mountain Warehouse on Oxford Street, as well as Phones 4 U and Monsoon, which have been part of the city centre for years. However, it is not all bad news;

“A planning application has already been submitted for the Mountain Warehouse site, and Barclays is carrying out a major refurbishment of the former La Senza building on Oxford Street as it prepares to relocate from The Kingsway.
National chain Las Iguanas has confirmed it’s moving to Wind Street and independent fashion retailer Goose Island, which has shops in Mumbles and Cowbridge, has opened in Plymouth Street.”

We opened a new store in Swansea city centre on November 1st. At Goose Island, we believe that it is important to invest in the city centre, as we believe it can still be a successful and bustling place where people can find everything they are looking for. Our new store had a successful opening day, and has remained busy since, seeing a steady footfall of new customers.

The Evening Post article also highlights a number of figures and statistics which show that Swansea is actually fairing a lot better in the retail sector than most of the UK. According to R3, the trade body for Insolvency Professionals, 21.82% of Swansea city’s retail businesses have a higher than normal risk of insolvency, compared to 22.21% of retail businesses in Wales, 25.04% in the UK, and 26.65% in London. These figures show that the city centre is heading in the right direction, which will surely give retailers a boost coming up to Christmas, however, more still needs to be done through schemes such as Swansea BID.

Goose Island’s owner and manager, Karen Hutchings, was given a chance to comment in the article on our new store opening, as well as the city centre situation in general;

“Swansea city centre is facing serious challenges with a number of national chains closing down, continued competition from out-of-town shopping centres, and the growth of online and mobile retailing.
Our shopping centre needs to be a social place with a vibrant daytime economy, offering something that neither shopping centres nor the internet can match. We want to show our commitment to the city centre rejuvenation by opening a boutique that offers shoppers a personal and high quality shopping experience. We hope that other independents will follow suit as we believe this approach will be a huge step in the city centre regeneration plans.”

We are looking forward to connecting with a lot more Swansea customers at our new store, and hope to see the growth of other independent retailers within the city centre in the near future.

You can read the full Evening Post article here.

New Goose Island Store Opens in Swansea

Goose Island is extremely pleased to announce the opening of our brand new store in Swansea.

The grand opening was held on November 1st, complete with champagne, nibbles, and a whole host of lovely new customers. Princess Jasmine and Alibaba, from the upcoming Aladdin pantomime at Penyrheol Theatre, also attended the opening and helped us welcome new customers, and even gave out their own personal fashion and style advice. Alibaba particularly liked our long red jumper dress.

We will be stocking all of our regular Goose Island favourites at our new store, such as our very popular shirt jumper and magic dresses, as well a whole host of new stock ready for the festive season. Look out for our new sparkly, glamorous clutch bags, soft tartan scarves, crystal bracelets, subtle tie dye dresses, dainty necklaces, and much, much more. We’ve even got a range of Christmas gifts ready to go.

Our new store is located on Plymouth Street in Swansea city centre, opposite the Eli Jenkins pub. This now means that we have three stores across south Wales, in Mumbles, Swansea and Cowbridge, and we look forward to meeting all of our new customers, as well as other exciting ventures in the future.