Earlier this week, nine young people headed to the capital for three days of retail research… and some sight-seeing of course!
For the Mahdlo Merchandise Project, part of our Get A Job programme, the group will be coming up with some fantastic new ideas for Mahdlo merchandise and developing their skills and experience in product design, business and retail planning. To gain inspiration, they visited:
- Numerous souvenir shops in London
- The National Gallery gift shop
- Camden Market stalls
- Wembley’s England Shop
- Fashion shops and retailers
The group also had the opportunity to pick the brain of one of the Marketing Directors of Change4Life who gave some invaluable advice on marketing, legal issues, understanding target markets and developing ideas from early stages to finished product.
Eric Bishiyka, who joined the project for this trip, already runs the hugely successful SW Clothing Company currently being championed by top international Oldham DJ Mark XTC and recently seen out and about in Ibiza and the Big Apple. Eric said, “I’ve been involved with the work that Chris is doing at Mahdlo for a long time and they’ve been kind enough to let me use the offices and meeting rooms to support my business. I want other young people to see what a difference getting involved with Mahdlo can make and I’m really excited to be joining them on this trip to London.”
Chris Hughes, who heads up our Get A Job programme, said, “The Mahdlo Merchandise Project is a great opportunity for these young people to get experience of developing and running a business. The young people will have full control of creating, designing, pricing, marketing and selling a new range of merchandise for https://www.mahdloyz.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Design-our-minibus.png. This all starts with a trip to our capital to see how industry professionals do it. This trip and opportunity could not have been possible without the support of charitable donations to Mahldo”
The next step will be a presentation to the Mahdlo management team of their best ideas along with a business plan – so look out for future news of their products and successes as they are sure to go far!
