THOUGHT

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SPECIAL REPORT
SPECIAL REPORT
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Christo sold sandstone items, hand carved by Rajasthan craftsmen
Christo decided to recondition firebowls to create a new product
Kadai Firebowls are frequently used in TV shows, like ITV’s Beowulf
The Kadai Firebowl fits perfectly in to the Beowulf background
t That work was successful, though it
took many years of hard graft.
Today Kadai Firebowls has a wide range
of customers, from those who will spend
£20,000 a time on extravagant, showpiece
items to young couples who have bought
new homes and want something unique for
their garden.
Exhibiting at shows has helped to drive
sales and Kadai have been award winners
at Chelsea Flower Show since 2004. Their
products have also featured in an enormous
amount of television programmes, movies
and online channels.
Their products were first used in Pirates
of the Caribbean in 2006 and since then
they have been used in numerous films and
TV shows, including Robin Hood (2009),
Game of Thrones (2010), ITV – Love your
Garden (2011), Your Highness (2011),
The Bastard Executioner (2016), Beowulf
(2016), Winter Watch & Spring Watch
(2015 & 2016), DIY SOS: The Big Build –
Shropshire (2016), Autumn Watch (2016)
and The Mummy, a Tom Cruise movie due
for release later this year.
Josephine adds: “We have people
who come down from a lot of the film
studios. They come up from London and
rifle through our warehouse and basically
choose things that they might like.
“They take a lot of the furniture to use
as props in a lot of movies. The items are
antique, Indian and unique-looking.
“There’s a permanent Kadai bowl on
Spring, Autumn and Winter Watch too.
“They all sit around it and you see it
quite often on the programme.”
Such exposure brings the company
great PR. There’s a flurry of social media
engagement following the screening of
TV shows or films with people asking one
another whether they saw a particular item
on the big screen. And while that doesn’t
necessarily correlate to instant sales, it
enhances the brand and opens new doors.
Garden shows, like Chelsea, are
more effective as sales channels. “We did
about 13 shows in 2016 and there will be
more in 2017. We also have our own little
retail outlet on the A49. And we have 200
stockists around the country and in Europe.
“We are looking to push out to America
and Australia. We also do a lot of business
online.
“We have people who
come down from a lot
of the film studios. They
come up from London
and rifle through our
warehouse and basically
choose things that they
might like. They take a lot
of the furniture to use as
props in a lot of movies.”
Keeping warm on the set of BBC’s Autumn Watch – the hosts huddle around a firebowl
Crowds, wellington boots and squelchy mud. Ah yes, it’s festival time. What better than drying out by a giant Kadai firebowl
“The shows are driving considerable
growth. Up until last year, it was a slow
organic growth but now it’s started to
explode a little. We launched a new website
in 2016, which helped phenomenally.
“And we’ve been able to see the link
between new business and our appearance
at shows. When we attend an event, people
see the product, pick up a leaflet and tend
to buy soon after. A lot of orders come in
post-shows.”
The company has 25 staff and a bright
prospect. And Christo gets to carry on doing
what he’s always loved most – travel, create
new products and sell.
He’s at the Shropshire company’s
base practically every day. His main focus
remains product development – he loves to
invent new products then take those ideas
back out to India.
Kadai firebowls range from a £20,000 centrepiece to something more suited to the garden