- Julia Gash
- 8th December 2015
I had six days in Hong Kong and thirteen meetings to attend on behalf of Talented – a sustainable canvas tote bag brand and major print customer for BIDBI. We have many stockists in Hong Kong and so I was here to meet up with them, get feedback and share ideas. Here’s my take on Hong Kong, printed onto a natural, reusable bag complete with red/white/blue feature web handles.
Meeting after meeting presented a new opportunity to learn more about the market here and discuss ideas for new projects with our key retailers in Hong Kong. Here I am with Tetsuya from Joint Publishing Store in the New Territories.
I also get to see some great merchandising ideas in Hong Kong such as this neat little display put together by Hong Kong Book Centre.
Sustainable bags are in big demand here since Hong Kong introduced a plastic bag tax in April 2015. It’s $0.50 Hong Kong Dollars to pick up a plastic bag at the check out, which is similar to the plastic bag tax that’s been introduced in the UK as well as in many other regions and countries from around the world.
Not surprisingly BIDBI makes bags for customers on every continent and particularly in areas where such environmental legislation has been introduced. Here’s a bag that BIDBI makes that for one of Hong Kong’s major book retailers: Bookazine, which I spotted as I was making my way from one meeting to the next. When I arrived at the meeting I then got to see a bag that BIDBI had made for publisher Monocle! It’s such a thrill to see something that we’ve made on the other side of the world to where I live and work.
I also spotted some Japanese tourists sporting cotton reusable bags that we printed for international vinyl record retailer Rough Trade in our factory in Sheffield. Don’t they just look super cool and as such they prove the point that reusable cotton tote bags are fit for fashionistas, great for green gurus and are an effective marketing tool for businesses all around the world!
