The year that was at Munchkin & Bear

Pretty proud of this little biz and the year we were able to have in 2021, despite the continuous repercussions from Covid (and 2020… if I dare to mention those numbers!). 

We set goals and we achieved them:

1. Donate $10k to charity

To celebrate Munchkin & Bear’s fifth birthday, we were able to donate a giant $10,000 cheque to Bravery Box - a children’s cancer charity founded here in Brisbane. We cannot thank every single one of our M&B customers enough as it is only because you choose to shop with us that we can choose to support those in need. If you didn’t get to see the video showcasing this charitable donation, grab the tissues and have a watch here. You’re sure to be inspired by the courage and strength of such little people and their grown-ups. 

2. Donate our time by Volunteering

Our next goal was ticked off in July, when some of the team headed down the road to our friends at Baby Give Back. Alana, Georgie and Jana spent the day volunteering their time to help prepare the essential items that so many families in need require urgently. It was an honour to see the selfless work their little team does everyday and contribute our time. You can watch a little peek into what it was like spending the day there here.

3. Donate Blood

And finally, ticking off the last item on our list - giving blood! The whole team headed off to our local Lifeblood Van and donated for what was then most people’s first time! The team there was so supportive at explaining the process and we’ve all loved checking to see which hospital our donations head to after each session. We can’t recommend the process enough and it’s so important, especially during this time of year, to help out if you are able. Check out a reel of our experience here!

We faced our fears:

For our team's end of financial year celebration, we decided to face our fears and have an adventure together so we climbed the Story Bridge in Brisbane! It didn’t quite go as planned as a giant storm hit us at the very top of the climb! Two of our team members were also a little (okay, well maybe a lot!) scared of heights and there were a few tears shed. We were DRENCHED but all survived and now have a few funny stories to tell from that afternoon. 

We visited customers in other states when we could:
 

Along with those four big goals, we had a few other exciting things planned along the way including a 10-expo tour of our great country! But, the reality was we managed a few expos in our hometown and one interstate in Sydney  before Covid kicked in. (Don’t worry Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and Canberra - we’re coming for you in 2022!). 

We kept working on our fitness:
 

We continued to put our health and wellbeing first and had lots of laughs doing our weekly office pilates classes with instructor, Chloe and the Mum crew smashed out loads of PT sessions together. We can’t thank Alana enough for thinking of US and allowing us to look after ourselves during work hours. 

We sent 18,500 babies a safe place to play:
 

The team worked HARD this year to make sure you weren’t without a soft, squishy Play Mat. With so many families spending a lot more time indoors over the past few months, we found lots of new people were discovering our beautiful play mats. Because of this, we outgrew our first warehouse and started renting a second warehouse in our complex before moving onto a third that was bigger to fit all our beautiful Luxe Play Mats. This allowed us to open a little boutique for Brisbane customers which is something we’ve been wanting to do for a while now! 

The team grew:

Taylor and Georgie came on board full-time after finishing their studies and the Mums continued to be able to put their families first and be at the school-gate and assemblies whenever the mini’s needed (or their heart’s contended!). 

We won some awards:

We added 9 new awards to our trophy cabinet which is just mind-blowing! To see our products be chosen as the winner amongst a pool of incredible businesses always makes us feel so proud. Over 70,000 families around Australia, New Zealand and the UK now have our products in their homes and that is pretty special!

We designed four new Play Mats:

We spent many hours collaborating with the wonderful Christina from The Design Parlour to bring four stunning new Play Mat designs to life. These have become crowd-favourites instantly which is so exciting to see. We’ve also been working on some exciting new products behind the scenes too… so stay tuned for those in 2022!

But not all went to plan… we faced some hard times too:

Our UK team struggled through prolonged lockdowns with no school, play dates or time to catch-up with family or friends. In QLD, we were pretty lucky but did endure a year of snap lockdowns which is always tricky to navigate as a small business. 

We experienced a HUGE increase in costs due to Covid and it was increasingly difficult to get the stock we needed. (For example, it used to cost us around $2500 USD to get each of our containers of beautiful Play Mats delivered to us but now it costs upwards of $10,000 USD). My gosh - we even had a container get stuck in the Suez Canal (you can’t make these things up!)! We also hired new members of our global team who couldn’t even meet in person for MONTHS due to Covid restrictions in their local markets. 

But truly,

None of these incredible events could have happened without the support of you guys - our *seriously* amazing M&B tribe! Your support to our little biz is unwavering and never goes unnoticed by our team. Thanks for being a part of this year that was! Bring on 2022!!