Bye Bye Green Baby

It came as no surprise to us last month when we heard that Green Baby had gone  into receivership. This used to be a fantastic company, pioneering organic fashion for babies and children but all that went wrong when the founders were forced to sell the company 2 years ago. Jill and Jonathan Barker set the company up just a few months before Georgina and I started Born. We stocked their clothing from the beginning and with them at the helm they were one of our biggest clothing suppliers. In 2010 with the banking crisis they were forced into a situation where the only way the the business could continue was to bring in outside investors.  As is so often the case in these situations, with the founders leaving, the heart of the business went too.  We very quickly realised that the smaller independent businesses were not on their priority list anymore; they were chasing the large multiples. That coupled with messed up orders, lack of communication and in our opinion out of touch designs meant that we no longer wanted to work with the new owners in any way near the volume we once did.

Their disappearance was sudden, the website closed ‘for maintenance’ and the Facebook page just disappeared.  I still know Jill so had a chat about what was going on and you never know she may be able to resurrect the business, however for the mean time the brand lays in wait, being picked over by the investors.

So often with sustainable businesses we focus on the sustainability of the manufacturing process and forget that the business needs to be sutainable in the UK too. The business has to sustain rent, rates, salaries and keeping financially viable. This is a constant balancing act that we and other smaller independent companies struggle with everyday. In the 12 years we’ve been here we’ve seen so many businesses come and go, just a shame that this one has gone now too.

Eva