Celtic & Co’s founders Nick and Kath Whitworth have announced that their company has been awarded their second Queen’s Award for International Trade in three years. The award celebrates the business’s success in export and highlights a real Cornish success story.
Based in Newquay, the company has just entered it’s 30th year of trading, operating through direct to consumer and trade channels. While the United States, Australia and Canada are its biggest successes so far, it has also sold direct to customers in as far flung places as Sri Lanka, Venezuela and Kazakhstan. International trade forms a core part of the company’s strategy with new markets targeted each year, website translation and European markets are high on its agenda.
Celtic is a premium womenswear, menswear and homeware brand, specialising in sustainable natural fibre products. It manufactures sheepskin boots and slippers by hand in its Newquay workshop and sources luxury clothing from British and European manufacturers, keeping its supply chain as close to home as possible.
Nick was keen to highlight the team effort behind the award, from his staff and all of the suppliers and customers that support us:
“All of us at Celtic & Co are so immensely proud of this achievement and I thank everybody involved in this team effort. To receive a second Queen’s Award has to be one of our most memorable achievements and is a real credit to all of our hardworking staff who should all feel justifiably proud. A Queen’s award is one of the most prestigious business awards in Great Britain and could only be achieved not just by all of us here at Celtic & Co, but also because of all the contributions from our suppliers and of course all of our customers.”
And Kath was keen to highlight how the business supports its local economy, all built around a long term, sustainable approach:
“Currently our business model is to run all overseas operations from our UK based head office here in Cornwall. We utilise the knowledge and experience of our logistics partners to ensure that we are exporting goods in the most efficient and cost effective way for our customers and the business. By operating in this way we are keeping employment opportunity and supplier partnerships in the UK – supporting our local economy.
As we grow our international business we will continue to look at innovative ways to use natural fibres to create long lasting, timeless pieces that help transform us from a throwaway society into one that truly values sustainability. The manufacturing part of the business definitely has its heart in Cornwall and that’s where our boots and slippers will always be made.”
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