We recently had a chat with Tony and Claire from AB Agencies who work with Modeca to ask them all about working with the brand and how they got to into the wedding industry.
Hi guys, thank you for taking the time to chat to us, can you tell us how you got into the wedding dress business ?
It’s a cliche but when I chose my my gown for my wedding I was unhappy with the overall experience as it was very basic back then, so I decided to open a shop myself. It feels like a lifetime away now as it was 20 years ago. I opened my boutique in 2003 with my Mum as my business partner and a super talented seamstress. I was also heavily pregnant with our first baby, Olivia – complete madness. The business grew and Tony started working as an agent in 2006 just as our son Joseph was born. We decided to close our our shop in 2017 as my Mum was ill and I really didn’t want to do it with her, nor to pass on the reputation we had worked so hard to achieve to someone else so we put it to bed, gracefully. The timing was perfect because Tony’s agency was growing beyond his means and he needed me to work with him and generally keep things in order.
What made you decide Modeca was the designer for you ?
Tony was approached by Modeca around 7-8 years ago and after only one meeting with Dick Van Vupthen. Their work ethic is like ours and then have been a family business for over 70 years. No pushy sales, just beautiful gowns with exceptional customer service. Working with a truly wonderful, hard working team was a no brainer.
Tell us about your typical working day ?
Our working day is always busy, we have 4 children aged 18, 15, 14 and 7 so mornings are always a bit mad. We get everyone out the door by 8.15am then switch on the desktop. Our office is based mainly at home but we also have a warehouse where we store all the samples and we organise some of the deliveries from there. Usually we spend a a couple of hours wading through emails – so many of us bridal folk work well into to night so our inbox pings all hours of the day. I process the orders and invoices and Tony deals with the marketing, trunk shows and sales. We generally eat lunch together and chat about where we are up to. Tony spends a lot of time on the road visiting our lovely stockists and is always well looked after whilst I stay home and beaver away answering the phone and emails. 3pm and one of us scoots out to scoop up the children and then back to the office until dinner time. Working from home means we are always able to sit around the table and eat dinner as a family which is really important to us and Tony is a great cook, which is a bonus. I generally sneak back into the office for a couple more hours after dinner to tie up any loose ends from the day and to avoid the washing up of course.
What is your favourite aspect of your roles within your company, AB Agencies ?
Our favourite aspect without a doubt is being with our customers. Talking to them, finding our their needs and being able to go the extra mile when they have a bride who needs something quickly or making some changes to make a gown perfect. Working with our amazing team in Holland ensures we have everything at our fingertips to do as much as humanly possible. We also absolutely love launching the new collections at the trade events and are quite partial to a glass of something sparkling with our lovely stores.
What plans do you have for the future of your business ?
World domination.. what else ? ha ha. Since we took over distribution following brexit our business has changed dramatically. We plan to retain the levels of customer service set before us and hopefully develop by adding new collections to our company. We have lots of ideas for the future – watch this space. We are truly fortunate to work in such a fabulous industry with the most amazing people who constantly amaze us with their boundless energy and excitement for our brands.
Thank you so much Claire and Tony for chatting to us – we cannot wait to have more gorgeous Modeca gowns in our collection.