More adventure

Yesterday I met up with the Adventure Family before they headed south on the final leg of their African adventure (they're aiming to be in Cape Town mid-January). It was good to see them and nice to see our Fishing Stool being used for more than fishing (or sitting).

Snake incursion

Yesterday's excitement involved a large(ish) snake that wandered into the Lenana shop as we prepared for our Christmas Sale. No idea if he was there to buy or just looking but Martha wasn't at all happy with the intrusion and he was quickly despatched.

Always ethical, now audited.

Today we had an independent ethical audit conducted by the extremely professional Nairobi-based Ethical Business Services team from Africa Now. Leonard Nawiri and Peris Ochieng will be pulling together the report over the next week but the initial feedback was very positive, which is gratifying but unsurprising because we've always been guided by strong ethical principles. I think the key is that it will give us a framework to guide us in future, undoubtedly helping us do a few things better, but most importantly formalising something that until now has been more of a philosophy that has grown from operating in a way that simply felt right.

Kinondo Kwetu

At the weekend I embarked on a mammoth trip from Nairobi to Mombasa by train: departure 7pm Friday night, scheduled arrival 8am Saturday morning, actual arrival 4pm Saturday afternoon. The travails of the journey were more than compensated for however by my visit as a (paying) guest, and deliverer of new product, to Sandstorm customer and resort (that feels more like a great house party) Kinondo Kwetu: I get a real kick when people make doing something so well seem so completely effortless. Tell all your nice friends, this place is heaven and it was a wrench to have to leave for the return rail journey after just 24 hours. My pics don't do it justice, so take a look at the website when you get a moment.

Nyama Choma

I've been rather tardy this week with posting, much going on, but last Friday we all gathered at the Africana Restaurant next to Jamhuri for nyama choma. Pretty much everyone made it and it was great to have everyone from the factory, the office and the shops together under one roof, and we're going to do it every couple of months from now on. For those of you unfamiliar with nyama choma, it is (or certainly feels like) Kenya's national dish, and translates literally as 'roasted meat' in Swahali, we had goat and on this occasion, accompanied by ugali (cooked maize meal) and sukuma-wiki (curly kale). Delicious.

Everyone gathered.

Big smiles from the sales team.

Zadock (left), our accountant, dispenses beer with natural authority.

Never get between Moshi and his nyama choma.

Lest we forget

There's a small turning off Ngong Road on the right hand side as you head into town. It's just past the racecourse and almost equidistant between our office at Lenana and Jamhuri. Thousands of people pass it every day by car and on foot, but I've never seen anyone make that turn. It brings you onto a long tree-lined avenue that leads to a cemetary and memorials that commemorate the fallen of the war in East Africa, 1940-41. This Sunday is Remembrance Sunday.





My Grandfather fought in the First War and, while we're remembering, this is the transcript of a letter sent to my Great Grandmother by one of his men. I never had the chance to know him, and this letter makes me wish I had.

June 19th, 1918
France

Dear Mrs. Stephenson,

I’m sure I don’t know whether this is the proper way to address you or not, and I hope you will pardon me the great liberty which I am taking in writing to you on behalf of the men of the battery and myself, which came out with the battery two years ago. The reason why I am writing is to ask you if you would mind letting me know if Capt Stephenson is recovering alright or if he has got better and been transferred to another battery as no one seems to know anything about him here. If he has been sent to another battery, would you mind sending me his address as I would like to ask him to get me transferred as well to be along with him. I have been his servant three years now and well I think there is no one like him, and if he gets another servant I’m sure he wont look after him properly. Also, I have to tell you that the men think him one of the best Officers out in France. He was practically in charge of two brigades of artillery and he never lost either a man, horse, gun or wagon all during the retirement, and how he managed to bear up through it all was really a marvel. If you could hear the men praising him your heart would well nigh burst with pride, and I am not telling you this simply because you are Capt. Stephenson’s mother but because its every bit true. He was the last old Battery Officer that we had left and that in itself makes us doubly anxious to have him back. I have watched the various roads into the camp waiting for him until I think I know every stone in them, but he never appears. No doubt you will think me very presumptious in writing to you like this, and I don’t know what the Captain would think if he knew, but hope that you will excuse me. Hoping that the Capt’s sister, brother and yourself are enjoying the very best of health.

I have the honour to be
Your obedient servant

G. J. Taylor. 750693.

Meet Joyce

Joyce Wairimu has just come on board as Sales & Marketing Manager. Previously as Head of Marketing and Procurement at KDF, Kenya's leading duty free operator, she was a Sandstorm customer and it's great that we've been able to lure her to our side of the fence. Originally from Nakuru, Joyce's passion away from work (apart from fine wine) is choral singing and she is going to be performing in Handel's Messiah (all four hours!) with the Nairobi Music Society on the 6th and 7th December at the Oshwal Auditorium in Westlands. If you're in town why not go along, I'm sure it will be amazing.

Station spotting

Matathia is an abandoned railway station high above the Rift Valley floor. I watched a very long goods train out of Nairobi wind its way through here, but the trains don't stop any more and the station was much more interesting. Loved the type on the signal box, and couldn't help wondering if they had spread it out to aid legibility as you flew through at speed, or just because it looked great. The 'derailer' looked interesting too: every ad agency should have one to stop ideas that get out of control.

 

 

The Camper of Bags

I like Camper as a business and as a brand, I like what they stand for but above all I love my Camper boots. They're incredibly comfortable, and the more I use them they better they get - just like our bags. In fact wanting to be the Camper of Bags wouldn't be a bad ambition. (My trusty Fishing Bag included entirely gratuitously in the background.)

What's in a name?

Last week we made a trip to the aptly named Industrial Area on the other side of Nairobi. Not the prettiest part of town, and a nightmare to get to, but the only place to get many essential materials and equipment: the only way to find new suppliers seems to be either through word of mouth or luck, Euro Patools was a discovery that fell into the latter category. The proprietor, Dipak, moved here from London 18 months ago and the business is going from strength to strength. Their name caught my eye and I wondered where it had come from; it transpired that his intention had been to call the business Europa Tools, however the City Council processed the paperwork with the space in the wrong place and so Euro Patools was born: not the name he had planned but distinctive, memorable and with an interesting story attached that elevates it from clerical error to happy accident.

Adventure Family

Lina, Richard, Pia and Milan and all their children together make up Adventure Family. They're doing what many of us can only dream of: driving all the way from Europe to Africa in a pair of fully kitted out Land Rovers. They stopped in to see us as they passed through Nairobi on their long journey south.



Having set out from Gothenburg in February, you can imagine that their seats had taken a bit of a hammering so Sandstorm Kenya joined an august group of sponsors that includes Pentax Cameras and Lenovo Computers, and supplied them with canvas & leather seat covers to make them more comfortable, along with some of our new canvas & webbing bags.

They'll be putting the seat covers and the bags through their paces, keeping us posted on how they perform and giving us feedback on potential improvements as they go (and of course saying very nice things about us to everyone they meet!).

You can follow their adventures on their blog.

Sparks fly

We had 25mm of rain last night. I was working late and wondered why someone was setting off fireworks outside until I realised that the rain was shorting out the power lines on the main road to lethal, but quite spectacular effect. 

Sunday with Robin and Nigel

On Sunday I was fortunate enough to be invited to join Robin Schalch and Nigel Pavitt on a small adventure, to look at some fascinating pieces of Kenyan history.

There's nothing I can write here in under a 1000 words that would do justice to what was a very enjoyable and educational day roving the Rift Valley and Escarpment outside Nairobi (and the weather was hopeless for photography!), but Nigel, helped by Robin and others, has just produced an astonishing book called Kenya – A Country in the Making 1880-1940. Containing 720 photographs it's an essential visual record of Kenya over those years.


Here are reviews of the book in The Nation, and the Wall Street Journal, and it's available to order it at both Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.com. I know it will make a superb gift either for yourself or anyone else who loves this country and its history.

Luxist

And here's another from Luxist back in May.

h(y)r collective

Just spotted a post on us on the h(y)r collective blog. Apparently we're semi-secret (!)... not for much longer.

Could try harder

You clearly don't need to try very hard when you have an apparent monopoly on something every one of us needs, but if someone started selling clean water from clean trucks, who would clean up?

Verticle is good

We're an unusual company in lots of ways but one of the things I believe makes us unusually great is the fact that, at a time when most brands sub-contract, here in Kenya we're vertically integrated from manufacture right through to retail, with shops here at our Lenana head office and across Nairobi at Village Market.

So where many businesses spend fortunes on research (often to tell them stuff they already know), I can walk three steps out of my office and talk directly to the people who love our brand and buy our product. One of the things that's come out of these conversations is a clear demand for product that has all the 'safari-grade' build quality of our current bags, but more rugged and (ideally) lower cost - the kind of thing you're more than happy to chuck in the hold of a plane, or the back of a Land Rover. And of course because we make them ourselves we can test and sample, test and sample, in low quantities until we get things just right.

And here's the result: a set of four nice, simple and tough as hell, canvas & webbing bags that will retail here in Kenya for a lot less than our canvas & leather collection.


Four sizes ranging from "popping down the gym" to "crossing the Kalahari".


Military-grade webbing shoulder strap, and front zipped pocket.


Useful push pocket between straps on reverse.


Grab handles for hurling with ease.

Sandstorm on safari

Nice to see lots of our bags in their natural environment at Olkiombo airstrip in the Mara. These were taken by our Edinburgh-based Customer Services Manager and Kenya fanatic, Rosanna Osborne on her recent visit here.

Landcruiser: front seat - Explorer (green), Deluxe Adventurer (tan & green), Odyssey (tan); back seat - Pioneer (green)
Airstrip: Rosanna's Dad carries – Champagne Cooler (old style), Deluxe Adventurer (tan); Safari Guide carries Odyssey (tan) & Deluxe Adventurer (green)

Hunters Choice

Spotted this wee taste of Scotland on my way back from a meeting at Jamhuri... don't think I've ever seen it on the shelves at Oddbins.

To the tannery

Paul, John (Senior Cutter) and I went on a buying trip to the tannery north of Nairobi where we source all our leather. Nairobi traffic and tannery opening hours conspired to have us stop for a quick bite in Limuru (John on left, Paul on right), and then on to the tannery. Each of our hides is hand selected at source and here you can see John and Paul checking camel hides for quality and consistency.

Production Planning

Had our weekly production planning meeting this morning at Jamhuri. In the picture (left to right) you can see Lavender (who looks after one-off projects and seat covers), Paul (Purchasing Manager), Kioko (Quality Control), Moshi (Stores) and Dickie (Factory Manager). Dickie is talking through some detail on a one-off adaptation of our Safari Cooler for a client: as well as our standard international range we have a reputation for producing excellent one-off bags and accessories for clients locally.>

Moshi

Fierce negotiator, natural entrepreneur, profound philosopher, and passionate supporter of Chelsea F.C., Methuselah Moshi, Moshi for short, was a driver here until it became obvious that he had much more to offer, so we promoted him to look after finished goods stores here at Lenana. It's Moshi's job to keep his hawk-like eye on all our bags from the moment they leave the factory, but he also tends to get involved in all manner of problem solving. I'll post some of Moshi's words of wisdom here soon.

Down the old Ngong Road

Ngong Road is the main drag that runs out of Nairobi to Karen. The office is about half way along and we're right next to a mile-long stretch of Kenya's finest entrepreneurial craft (and graft). If it's made out of metal, wood, clay, these guys can do it... it's a CDT teacher's dream. This picture cost me 200 shillings: to quote the owner/manager "come on... I'm runnng a business here..."

Action

Spotted this on my Jamhuri wanderings this morning; lots more where this came from but I think it makes its point.

Jamhuri

We make our bags in a place called Jamhuri just down the road from our main office at Lenana Forest Centre. Jamhuri is the Agricultural Society of Kenya Showground. The place is only really used for one week a year for the International Trade Show at the beginning of October (during this week getting anything done at all is a nightmare: Edinburgh residents imagine running a business in the middle of the Highland Showground during the Highland Show and you'll get the picture). For the rest of the year it's largely a ghost town of concrete pavilions for Government Ministries and agricultural businesses, emblazoned with slogans and painted in relentlessly optimistic colours. This is a small selection, I'll try to post a few more on Flickr when I have a better-than-dialup connection.

Compound culture

Big gates, fences and guards are a way of life: your perspective is conditioned entirely by which side of the fence you're on.

Hot water

They burn charcoal in the garden and then set a fire in this boiler contraption behind my cottage. Cheaper then electric but perhaps not quite as clean.

Hand painted is best

The vast majority if signage is hand painted here. The brand police would have a field day, but it's full of little imperfections (some more than others): perfectly imperfect.

Soft top

We do a lot of custom canvas work, mainly seat covers with the odd awning thrown in. A customer has asked us to put a new lid on this slightly forlorn 205 CTi (remember them). Looks a bit fiddly. Be interesting to see how it turns out. Watch this space.

Decisions

Sometimes I have weeks that feel like this.