00:00We're incredibly excited to have Goulais coming along for the Easter market.
00:03They came to our Christmas market last year. It was their first time at Niche.
00:07And I just love the synergy of the fact that one of Launceston's oldest businesses
00:10is supporting one of Launceston's oldest charities and support services.
00:14So Goulais has been around since 1896 and St. Joel's since 1937.
00:19So to see businesses and community still connecting like that and supporting each other,
00:24I just think it's a great thing.
00:26Yeah, so lots of our makers will have different Easter-themed items,
00:29whether it's ceramics, you've got little chickens or Easter eggs,
00:32through to other products such as candles,
00:34people really cater to all the different seasons now.
00:38So a lot of our makers will have products which suit the Easter buyer
00:41or the Mother's Day buyer as well because we're about to go into school holidays
00:45and Anzac Day, so a lot of people are getting their shopping done in advance.
00:48We're making Easter bunnies, Easter eggs.
00:52We also do what we call tombs.
00:54So for us, Easter's not just making chocolate Easter bunny.
00:59We have an understanding of Easter to be more than bunnies and that.
01:04And so for us, it's a Christian thing.
01:07So we make these tombs and just, yeah,
01:11once you do bunnies and that,
01:14there's really not so much more to do other than that.
01:17Well, it actually takes, so with our products, like our buddies,
01:21we hand paint them.
01:22And I've got a lady out the back there and she's hand painting right at the moment.
01:26She paints the eyes, she paints the nose.
01:29And then we'll put the chocolate in the mould and then there's two ways we can do it.
01:36We can spin it on a machine or we hand turn it and put it on the bench.
01:41So it's quite in bulk.
01:43It actually takes two people, four to six weeks to do the product.
01:49And that's not doing anything else.
01:51In the past, we needed to raise the profile of the business.
01:54And we thought that let's get out to the public,
02:00not expect them to come to us.
02:02And so we started to do a few markets around the state.
02:05We even did Hobart for a little while,
02:08but what knocked that in the head was cost of fuel and stuff like that.
02:13We heard about the niche market and we went Christmas time to it.
02:21And so we have to do a calculation.
02:23Is it worth our while doing markets or am I better off in the factory manufacturing?
02:30But the other good thing about the niche market,
02:33and my understanding is they're involved with St. Giles,
02:36is we give a percentage of our takings to St. Giles.
02:42And I guess that's a way that we can contribute to them.
02:46And then there's also a win stage for us of selling product
02:50and then getting the name out there
02:53so people know that Giles are still manufacturing and making sweets.
02:59The more makers that we have along that have a strong profile,
03:02it certainly helps us.
03:03And in this day and age, we find a lot of the makers,
03:06they're active on social media
03:07and they've got their own followings of thousands of people.
03:10So we know that if they can get the message out about the market,
03:12it just makes it stronger and stronger and stronger.
03:14And so having someone like Google Ace on board, it's much the same.
03:17They're out there telling their customers that they'll be at the market
03:20and we love having that happen for us.
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