2019 Charlie Bears on QVC US this Week!

The time that we have all been waiting for is almost here.  Charlotte Morris and her husband, Will, owners of Charlie Bears, will be appearing on QVC US this Wednesday and Thursday.  (And we have heard that there will be a special guest on the Thursday show.)

Dates and times are as follows:
March 27 - 6 am ET on QVC
March 28 - 3 pm ET on QVC2

It is always so enjoyable getting to watch them both and we are expecting that they will be showing lots of wonderful 2019 Charlie Bears.  (We have found in the past that they most often debut plush Charlie Bears but who knows?  Maybe this time they will also be showing us some mohair teddies?)

And as is always the case, Beacon's Glow Collectibles will have the same Charlie Bears available for sale on our website.

Enjoy the show!

Quote of the Day - "Only I can change my life.  No one can do it for me." - Carol Burnett

2018 Charlie Bears Collection

This time of the year is always filled with anticipation and excitement for Charlie Bears collectors waiting for the upcoming year's collection to be revealed.  Charlie never fails to amaze her loyal followers with a plethora of plush and mohair Charlie Bears to choose from.

Who will be this year's favorites?  And when might the collection be revealed?  No one knows at this point. . . the excitement is mounting as it does every year about this time.  As Charlie and Will often ask "Who will pick you?"

Please stay tuned. . .

Quote of the Day - "Believe you can and you are halfway there." - Theodore Roosevelt

Ever Wonder Exactly Why It Takes So Long to Get A Charlie Bear?

I came across a very interesting online article the other day that perfectly explains why Charlie Bears are a bit slow to arrive at US retailers.  Incidentally, reasonable delivery times has unfortunately always been an issue with Charlie Bears as can be seen in this article.  But as I always like to say when it comes to magnificent Charlie Bears "Good things come to those who wait!"

This was taken from The Telegraph entitled "Look no further for the bear necessities", and was written by Anna White. Many thanks, Anna, for this inciteful article.

 "Husband and wife couple William and Charlotte Morris won over the collectables market with their handmade teddy bear, but its popularity almost proved their downfall as a surge in demand led to a year-long backlog of orders.

The Yorkshire pair spotted a niche for good quality, yet affordable collectors’ toys, secured a Small Firms Loan Guarantee from the Government to start Charlie Bears in 2005. “There was a significant gap in the market,” said Mr Morris, 39. “There were low quality products at the bottom end of the price range that people simply didn’t fall in love with or very expensive collectables.”

The Morris’s, who met when William walked into Charlotte’s teddy bear shop in Leeds looking for a present for his mother, relocated to Cornwall and after much searching found a manufacturer in Thailand that was willing to take on this new category.

“We had a few false starts,” said Mr Morris. “There just wasn’t a manufacturer out there capable of producing quality for the right price. All the attention to detail adds to the cost but if you approach suppliers in China you’ll get the opposite - low price, mass production.”

The small plant in Thailand already made high end Mohair Bears, supplying Walmart and other major brands. The pair approached the Korean owner with the idea to use a cheaper material called plush to handmade a detailed prototype. 

 The English couple designed 12 characters and placed a minimum order of 600 of each without any commitment of forward sales. “If it all went wrong all we had was 2,000 teddy bears to keep us warm,” said Mr Morris, who had sold their home, car and speed boat to launch the business.

Charlie Bears’ meteoric rise to fame began at the Birmingham Spring Fair, where they took £20,000 worth of orders from small independent retailers in one day. “For giftware start-ups it is the place to be,” he said. By the end of their first year they generating revenues of £138,000.

And it wasn’t long before the shopping channel QVC signed them up. “QVC fell for the love story behind the brand and our first show was a complete sellout,” Mr Morris said.

The strategy was to build a following of the next generation of collectors. The full series of Charlie Bears, retailing for around £400, was already commanding prices of around £3,000 on secondary marketplaces such as eBay.

While the consumer squeeze gripped the retail industry, Charlie Bears doubled its turnover from £1.1m in 2008 to £2.1m in 2009. “The recession was our biggest turning point,” said Mr Morris. “The bad news story meant people were more savvy with their money and we had created a product that looked more expensive than it was. With mortgage rates going down people were affording themselves the odd treat.”

The intensity of demand was starting to build, but the Morris’s still ran the entire business themselves, from cleaning the “bear-house” to presenting on QVC. They were so focused on dealing with orders that they did not foresee the looming production crisis.

A combination of problems hit the company simultaneously. After every QVC show Charlie Bears’ 120 stockists would be inundated with enquiries and suddenly at trade shows they were shunning the advances of QVC in Germany and the like.

Training up skilled workers to manufacture the bear could take up to two years and the Thai factory did not have the capacity to grow with the company. As a result customer waiting times slid from 30 weeks to 62.

“Our warehouse became a transit shed and we were so busy trying to get the product out of the door that we were not trying to solve the longer term problem,” he said. “And then the complaints came.”

So the pair turned to Growth Accelerator - a UK based service which provides small and medium sized businesses with a coach to help create a long term business plan. With experience of setting up manufacturing operations in Mexico and Puerto Rica, Paul Duffy identified the need for a team of staff, a senior management team that was properly incentivised, and led them in an urgent search to find more manufacturers. “Adding more offshore suppliers was never going to have an immediate impact so we also sat down to help the current manufacturer continue to work with Charlie Bears,” said Mr Duffy.

The solution to their long term supplier issue lay in the villages of Sri Lanka, where they found four production partners and initiated training programmes from the outset, using young female hairdressers and art students to shave the bears’ faces and complete the intricate face work.

“In many cases these girls [from the ages of 18 to mid-20s] were the first female family member to work outside the home or village,” said Mr Morris. “We also worked with Government to put a facility in Kandy to provide employment for people living in the outlying villages.”

The Charlie Bears team communicated with customers throughout its turnaround, “we used social media imploring people to bear with us - excuse the pun” said Mr Morris.

The business is now generating revenues of £8.5m with 500 stockists, it supplies 37 different countries and has its beady eye on Japan and the Middle East with their appetite for western heritage brands.

“We have never sold out to volume,” said Mr Morris, “We could have turned to the likes of China to mass produce teddy bears and get us out of a hole but we stuck by our original brand values of quality over volume, and it’s paying off.” "

Quote of the Day -  "Dreams and dedication are a powerful combination." - William Longwood

Lots of Charlie Bears to Arrive Today!

We are pleased to announce that FedEx will be delivering a large shipment of Charlie Bears today.  As always, it truly feels like Christmas each time a bear delivery arrives to be unpacked.

Beacon's Glow Collectibles is getting a refill on several older Charlie Bears to offer customers in plenty of time to order for the holidays.

One of the most popular trios that Charlie Bears offered in the past was the lion set of Linus (lion), Savannah (baby lion), and Lyra (lioness).  We are so excited to be getting in more of these adorable lions.

It was so enjoyable getting to watch Will and Charlie on QVC for their first US appearance on September 26th.  Such an adorable couple and it is obvious that they are both very passionate about Charlie Bears. 

Since there has not been a plush teddy bear company here in the US for many years, we predict that Charlie Bears will take the US market by storm (as they have done in several other countries).

Please stay tuned as we continue to receive in more plush and mohair Charlie Bears!

Quote of the Day - "Dreams and dedication are a powerful combination." - William Longgood

Charlie Bears Closing for Summer Break

It is quite refreshing to know that some companies still take the time and initiative to give all employees a summer break.  That is the case with Charlie Bears in the UK.  The Bearhouse (as they call it) will close from June 19 - July 6.

We will be receiving in one more shipment before that time and we expect many more collectible bears and critters to ship towards the end of July and well into the August time frame.

These are the bears that will be arriving next week before the summer shutdown:

Befuddle CB151556
Charlotte CB151507
Chutchy Face CB159045S
Ian CB151570
Kenzie CB151571
Knole BB153046A
Raglan BB153040A
Rainbow CB159047S
Secrets CB159099S
Terry CB151579

Please stay tuned!

Quote of the Day - "Knowledge is the treasure but judgement is the treasurer of a wise man." - William Penn

5 Things You Did Not Know About Charlie Bears

Soo Lee Panda by Charlie Bears

We love learning more about the history of Charlie Bears and interesting facts.  Here is hoping that you will find these 5 tidbits of interest:

1.  Tickly Toes on a Charlie Bear refer to their foot paws when the stitching reveals their pronounced toes as well as a padded foot pad.

2.  Once a Charlie Bear is retired, he (or she) never comes out of retirement.

3.  Each Charlie Bear is handmade and therefore, has his or her individual character.  In other words, no two are alike.  (That is why we here at Beacon's Glow Collectibles have absolutely no problem with emailing collectors photos of bears).

4.  Currently the back-order for these collectable bears is 30 weeks.  (This is greatly improved as at one time it was a 62 week back-order!)

5.  Most Charlie Bears are purposely made with floppy jointing in their head, arms, and legs.  This is to done to give each bear more personality as well as the ability to pose them.

Quote of the Day - "Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness." - George Santayana

Charlie Bears on QVC UK This Week

Just finished watching the first of four Charlie Bear shows on QVC UK.  We were hoping to see Charlie (Charlotte Morris) join her husband, Will, but unfortunately it never happened.  Keeping our fingers crossed that she will make an appearance on one of their upcoming shows.  We just love watching Will but Charlie brings an additional perspective to the creation of these incredible collectible teddy bears. Do they make a terrific couple or what?

William made many comments that we feel are worth sharing to further embrace the Charlie Bears brand:

1. 2015 will mark Charlie Bears tenth anniversary.
2. For those of you who are not familiar with the term "Plumo", this is a Charlie Bears-specific phrase when referring to a teddy bear who has mohair on both his ears and face, and the rest of him is plush material.
3. It was fun to learn some Christmas meal favorites from the UK which are definitely different than those traditional fixings here in the US (i.e., parsnip, mince pie, and brussel sprouts).
4. The Charlie Bears "Best Friends Club" now boasts more than 4000 members worldwide.
5. Charlie Bears tends to stay away from creating Christmas themed bears as they feel that these wonderful teddybears should be out on display all year.
6. All Charlie Bear Bearhouse bears (which are non-jointed bears and animals) are made of plush and are named after famous castles and landmarks. (Drogo (pictured above) was a Bearhouse animal presented on the show).
7. Mohair bears are intended for the discerning collector 14 years old and above, and are considered adult collectibles.
8. Mrs. Lovely was named after Will's sister.  (She actually works for Charlie Bears in sales and marketing in Europe).
9. The term 'tickly toes' refers to a bear paw pad that has stitching for the toes that is quite obvious.
10. Many times Charlie Bears get their names from Charlie Bear collectors. (On this show, Rowena was presented and she was named after a collector).  An adorable bear by the way!
11. Charlie Bears never come out of retirement.  Once they are retired, that is it.  (On occasion, Will did mention that they will bring back a smaller version but this is not commonplace).

Absolutely loved the Brussel bear that was presented during this show.  His face was just amazing!

Please watch the QVC schedule to see when Charlie Bears will once again present on QVC UK.  (In Texas, there is a 6 hour difference from the UK.  So for example if the show is on 2-3 pm UK time, it would be 8 am CST).

Quote of the Day - "Everyone has a fair turn to be as great as he pleases." - Jeremy Collier