A local company has beat several national names to win the best small trade stand exhibiting and selling at the recent Badminton Horse Trials, the world’s premier 3-day event in Gloucestershire.
Clara Perri is owned by Bill and Ann Clarihew and is based in the village of Childs Ercall. The couple moved to Shropshire in 2012, after a long and successful manufacturing and retail career in the South East of England.
Specialising in luxury leather accessories Bill and Ann were well known in the high end fashion markets, selling to such names as Harrods, Selfridges, Fenwicks, Jaeger and even Louis Feraud in Paris.
Although finding the slower pace of country life relaxing after the previous pressure of running a large business, they soon found that they missed some of the challenges of designing and producing their specialist fashion accessories. They were spurred on when their son, Chris, followed in their footsteps and set up his own brand, Mackenzie & George, of leather and fashion goods aimed at the equestrian/sports and county market.
Whilst establishing a successful web-based retail presence, Chris toured the main national horse and county shows such as Badminton, Cheltenham, Blenheim and the Royal Highland Show exhibiting and selling his goods. Bill and Ann found that they enjoyed the social side of attending and selling at such events and began to design and manufacture again their own range of luxury leather belts under the name of Clara Perri.
Talking about their recent successes, Bill said: “Although my son says this is a young person’s game and that I should be slowing down now, I find the whole process of designing, manufacturing and selling our own Clara Perri products so stimulating that it is hard not to get involved and expand.
“For the last few summers, I have kept saying that we will do fewer shows but then I find that organisers responding to public interest in the style and individuality of our belts ask us to come back and before I know it I have committed to multiple shows over the Summer and Christmas periods.
“We must be doing something right because not only to our surprise did we win best Small Trade Stand at the recent prestigious Badminton Horse Trials but only a few weeks before we won the Best Stand in the Craft and Design Marquee at the Harrogate Flower Show for the second year in a row!”
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