Believe it or not, it is 16 years since I launched Southdown Duvets.
In the intervening years, we have built a superb brand, much loved and respected not only for the premium quality product but also for our personal and accommodating customer service.
The very sad news is that since Brexit, it has become increasingly difficult and expensive to process and manufacture our duvets in Italy. While the subject no longer makes the news, I am finding it virtually impossible to navigate the movement of our material and stock through Dover and Calais, the only viable route. The cost of transport which has almost quadrupled is one thing. But what has broken me is the untold stress of having shipments returned to origin or worse, bureaucratic delays incurring open-ended demurrage charges of £50 per hour which can rack up for days.
Over the past 6 months I have been looking into re-creating my whole supply chain here in the UK. While it is indeed possible, I am not yet convinced of the quality of local wool scouring or final manufacture to anything like the perfection I have come to accept as normal from my Italian partners.
While I have continued to actively explore my local options, I decided that I am not prepared to risk my commercial reputation and that of my Southdown bedding range. I have worked too hard for too long to allow this to happen. I am also too proud of our 16 years of consistent 100% 5-Star reviews on TrustPilot and Google. I have therefore taken a difficult decision to begin decommissioning the Southdown Brand.
After the past 16 years, I have always told my customers that I cannot take credit for the success of the Southdown duvet – all credit ultimately has to go to the Southdown sheep of the UK who collectively grow this miracle fibre. So in saying goodbye to the Southdown community, I dedicate this editorial space to Bourne, the one Southdown ewe who I will never ever forget.
It was at the height of one lambing season and I was flat out, busy in my barn; the scene phrenetic enough to raise the blood pressure of any OB/GYN. Bourne had just produced a ram lamb and being a good mum, she accepted him. However, at about 5 hours old, I thought he looked cold. So I rigged up a heat lamp in the corner of Bourne’s pen and settled her lamb under it. Job done, I thought, and got on with the lambing. Well, I was kneeling (in amniotic fluid) in front of one of Bourne’s sisters when I smelt something alarming. Without getting up, because the first of a twin was about to arrive, I called over my shoulder to our farm manager. “Ed, I can smell burning!” To which Ed responded: “Oh crap! The sheep’s on fire!”
Deserting the straining ewe to her own devices, I vaulted over the sheep hurdles into Bourne’s pen. Bourne had decided that she needed the warmth more than her lamb. She had nudged him out from under the lamp and promptly parked her more than ample bottom right up against the large red heat bulb. And there she had just stood, completely oblivious to the consequences, with a blissful look on her face, while smoke wafted out from her nether regions.
And do you think we could shift her off the heat lamp? No – she wasn’t having any of it and at 90kgs, she stood firm. Best thing we could do was to switch the lamp off at the plug and as the bulb swiftly cooled down, it gradually dawned on Bourne that the party was over. But she did sport on her rump a huge smouldering patch of brown singed wool about the size of a soup plate.
I was still chuckling about Bourne’s hedonism when we finished lambing and I turned the flock out into a nearby field. That first evening when I did my rounds, Bourne came up to me, nuzzled her way into my jacket pocket and, to my surprise, pulled out a £20 note. She then stood there soaking up the perfection of that peaceful, bucolic evening while she just thoughtfully munched her way through the money.
On reflection, I still acknowledge today that Bourne had the exactly right idea about life and I am retiring to follow in her wise, if irreverent, hoof prints.
So, to thank all the Southdown breeders, so many of whom supported my project over the years, I have generated a coupon code BOURNE30 offering a 30% off any of my remaining duvet stock, while it lasts and in recognition that I am sure that every Southdown flock has had a Bourne.
