Ad/ As part of my blog series Wales : In their own words I am delighted to introduce you to the people behind the business, thank you to Mike of Mydffai Trading Company Ltd who kindly gave up his time to answer a few questions.
Name Mike Hill
Business Name Myddfai Trading Company Ltd
What does your business do? We supply luxury toilets to the Hotel, Guest House and B&B trade and retail via our website and Amazon.
What is your most popular product? Sinsir Twym / Warm Ginger Hand Wash 250ml
What is your personal favourite? As above
Where are you based? Llangadog, Carmarthenshire
How long have you been in business? 10yrs
What are your hours? 9-5 Mon to Friday
What is the easiest/most fun part of your business? Dealing with friendly clients
What is the hardest part of your business? Sourcing sundry items such as bottles, caps, pumps at the right price and from a reliable source.
Where do you live? Myddfai, Carmarthenshire
How do you relax? Fly Fishing (having withdrawal symptoms as the river is closed).
If you weren’t doing this what would you do? Retire.
Is this the career you thought you would have? Not at all I was an optician for 35yrs before a complete change to this.
Where did you train/learn? On the hoof.
Where did you grow up? Gloucestershire.
Where else have you lived? Cardiff, Plymouth, Winchester, Kent, Haywards Heath.
What is your favourite meal? Lasagne.
Are you a Welsh speaker? No.
Would you ever leave Wales? No.
What makes Wales so special? We are very lucky as we live on the side of a beautiful valley with an ambling stream at the bottom. We can get to a beach in half an hour or Cardiff in an hour.
Do you do online sales? Yes www.myddfai.com
Do you attend events? Some special ones but not many, unfortunately it is not very productive for us. (We were therefore very fortunate that Myddfai joined Wales Week / Berkshire in its inaugural year for the Welsh Emporium Pop Up Shop held at John Lewis in Reading).
How have you adapted your business during this pandemic? We are a small social enterprise and we work alongside adults with learning difficulties. Obviously it is not safe for those guys to come to the premises at present. The offices are in a very isolated rural area and we are maintaining business with a skeleton crew. Maximum two, minimum one. At present we are only receiving web and Amazon orders which we are able to fill. We have also donated hand lotion to hospitals, GP surgeries and nursing homes.
Could you recommend a website? www.myddfai.com!
Anything else you would like to say? As a busy social enterprise we would usually be full steam ahead filling orders from our trade customers at present. COVID–19 has put paid to all that. It is sad that our usual gang of volunteers are no longer able to come and work with us in these difficult times, the offices are very quiet, but safety is paramount. We very much look forward to welcoming them back in the future. In the meantime we are working hard to fill the web orders on a skeleton staff and would like to thank all those customers who are supporting us. We are also in the process of developing a hand sanitiser which we hope to launch in a week or so.
Mike Sinsir Twym / Warm Ginger Hand Wash is my favourite product too. Thank you so much for being the first blog in this series and I look forward to seeing you again as soon as it is safe to travel. Diolch.
Disclaimer : I have known Mike a number of years and have previously done a review so am marking this as an #ad.
Next up Elaine at Welsh Venison Centre, Bwlch, Powys