Female business owners thrive at The Game Fair

The Game Fair gives an opportunity for literally hundreds of businesses to share their brands, products and services with a near perfect target audience.  Many of these businesses are headed up by women who see shooting, field sports, gun dogs and all things country as an integral part of their businesses and lives as a whole.

We took some time out to have a chat with some of the businesses run by female entrepreneurs to get the low down on how important The Game Fair is to them and some of their plans for the future.

Daisy Torun-Shaw of Laird Hatters is carrying on the family business set up by her mother and they have had a stand at The Game Fair for 16 years.  “I came into the business with a fresh perspective; I started as soon as I finished school. I have always wanted to go into it and continue it as a British brand as its rare for a brand to have everything made in the UK and supporting other businesses that are similar, so I really wanted to continue that, whilst also bringing in new ideas,” she said.

“We want to keep the tradition going and be the last fully British hat maker, which is really well received – especially at The Game Fair where people really value British made things. It’s a massive selling point for us. Being at The Game Fair is integral to our strategy and branding.”

Melvill & Moon keeps ex-biochemist, Steffi Hain more than busy.  Founded by Rick Melvill in South Africa and rooted in polo where he would turn up in his Rolls Royce with a portable bar and chairs to watch the matches.  The UK market beckoned him and Steffi who already lived here swapped pharmaceutical sales for luxurious safari equipment, accessories and field sports paraphernalia.

“I launched Melvill & Moon here at The Game Fair six years ago. We’ve just gone from strength to strength and it just works; this is my market. Yesterday I would say 80% of my customers were stocking up on stuff, I need another chair or I need a bigger bar, or an add on in the luggage range. It’s very nice, it’s good fun and I love coming here,” commented Steffi.

“We’ve launched the Rogue Ice Coolers this year, from Durban in South Africa, they are fabulous boxes. We trialled them last year because we wanted to make sure that it is a very good product and they are now readily available. Everything is sourced in South Africa, I’m trying to stick to my routes – I’ve got the link with South Africa and so I need to stay true to myself too.”

Artist Steph Burch first used her art to fund herself through her psychology degree at university.  But now is a full time artist using her own dogs and sheep on her farm as inspiration. “People always seem to love the paintings that I love the most too, so I feel like the more I paint what I love, the more well received it is in general. My favourite one this weekend is the bright pink grouse and we’ve almost sold out of them. I’m trying to incorporate a lot of colour into my work and people seem to really like it.”

Steph wears all the hats in her business, “Literally everything from designing my own website, doing the painting and then standing here and selling direct to customers. So, every step of the way it’s all me and the help of my lovely family who are here with me.

“The Game Fair is our pinnacle event, weeks and weeks of preparation goes into knowing what stock to bring and how much. It’s definitely the highlight of the year for us.” When we asked Steph about being a women in business in this sector she said, “I genuinely find that women will support other women, we all chat to each other, give each other tips and feedback and this event is great for that networking.”

Finally, we had a chat to Sarah Breckons who set up Spent Shells following her husband asking her to make a keyring for him out of cartridges, she also sees The Game Fair as her top show of the year.

“This is our seventh year here and it’s going really, really well. I think people are here to spend and because we have established our position, we’ve always kept the same pitch which is really important – for brand recognition and locational. People remember we’re outside the pub. We’ve already had a really successful show.”

The support for British businesses really shines through at The Game Fair where support for small, innovative business is as strong as that for all our well known larger brands.  It’s quite simply the best place for countryside shopping with a few surprises along the way.