Printwear & Promotion The Total Promotional Package
With Choice Brands UK’s recent venture into the personalisation industry, P&P assistant editor, Cameron Beech, sits down with general manager, James Alexander, to discuss recent projects, the consequences of COVID-19, and the future of personalisation.
With its unique collections of bespoke watch designs catering to everyone from sports teams to charities, Croydon-based company, Choice Brands UK, is paving the way for fellow personalisation businesses.
Making a mark
The business’s journey began in 2006, with the founding of Choice Brands UK, and yet within two years, the company was making significant moves by becoming an official distributor of world-renowned brands. Starting out as a distribution arm for watches and jewellery brands, James told me that the company moved on to its own watch brands it had designed. In particular, James made mentioned of the decision the develop a new brand called Toff London, just before COVID-19 struck in 2020.
The idea of the newly cultivated brand would be for customers to send pictures of their pet to the company, which would then transfer the image on to the dial as a sticker. James explained that Choice Brands had developed a bespoke programme on the backend of its computer systems, which prints and checks the image. Once the sticker is transferred, the customer would then have the opportunity to choose their case, strap colour and case colour, and create a personalised engraving on the back. It was from the inception of Toff London, the company decided to grow the brand and venture into curating collections.
Consequences of COVID-19
What was fascinating to learn from my conversation with James was the extent COVID-19 was significant in the boosting of the personalisation industry.
Despite the company’s only recent entrance into personalisation sphere, James told me one of the key things he had noticed was how big the industry was rapidly becoming. He explained: “So many people, especially during COVID-19 and after COVID-19, wanted personalisation. People do not want to spend a lot of money, and they can buy something that’s personalised such as a celebrating an anniversary with an engraving. It makes a great present. It is more meaningful than just buying a standard watch or standard T shirt.”
I asked James how COVID-19 could have such an impact on the industry to which he told me it was because of two reasons: people could not leave their house and personalisation is inexpensive. He said: “People had more time as well. When you’re thinking of personalisation, there’s more of a thought process. You have to decide what colour you are going to have, what message it’s going to be. People had more time for that.”
Personalisation’s future
I asked James what he saw the future looking like for the personalisation industry. James told me: “I think it’s going to grow. I think there’s massive potential. People are going more and more online. The high street is not growing, its declining. People are looking for something that they don’t have to spend a lot of money on, but it means something.
“Anything that is personalised has a meaning, and people are more likely to keep it. As you gift it, the reaction you get is better. It takes a little more time so people know when you gift something personalised, you’ve spent that time looking for it, choosing the correct colour, choosing the correct engraving, the correct image etc. For that, people will keep it.”
Towards the end of the interview, I asked James if he had a favourite watch from one of the company’s collections, one which he had a particular soft spot for or one which was part of an especially enjoyable project. James answered speaking of a few which were in the running. He said: “We are creating a collection now called the Pin-up collection, which I’m really happy with.
“We have also designed a great pride collection. We work with a pride charity and we give a percentage away for every watch sold. That’s really good within the company because people like to know they are giving back as well when they draw the designs. They know a percentage of what they do will be given to a charity, and we are really proud about that. The pride collection was one of the first collections that we created.”
The takeaway
What was made clear throughout the duration of my conversation with James was that the personalisation industry is only predicted to grow and expand its market potential. Despite only entering the sector a few years ago, Choice Brands is living proof of the advantages of embracing personalisation.
Recent projects
Choice Brands UK boasts an impressive portfolio of projects, working on everything from football club collections to projects celebrating significant historical moments. James said: “We reach out to everybody. We have reached out to all the football clubs, all the cricket clubs all the rugby clubs. We reached out to the minor sports as well.
“Our job is to reach out to as many people as possible. We produce bespoke watches for museums, and charities. No organisation cannot take a bespoke watch.”
On that note, here is a look at a few recent projects by Choice Brands.
Retirement from Ice Hockey GB
James delved into what it was like crafting a bespoke watch for the retirement of ice hockey player, Matthew Myers, of Ice Hockey GB.
The watch, commemorative of Mr Myers’s dedication to the sport for just shy of two decades, incorporates a personalised engraving of Mr Myer’s jersey number, as well as the years he had spent playing for Great Britain. The watch face epitomises the less is more mantra, encompassing a sleek look with its white watch face an identifiable GB Ice Hockey logo front and centre and ‘GB Ice Hockey’ displayed beneath the dials.
James had explained that the company had built a working relationship with GB. He said: “We’ve been producing the GB watches for ice hockey for a number of years. We manufacture the GB watches for the supporters, the players (for the players they are individually named), for different tournaments.
“We also create them for some of the marshals or referees as gifts. They’ve got their name on it, and the date of the tournament.”
Choice Brands was contacted by a supplier of GB Ice Hockey who asked if a bespoke watch could be made for Matthew’s retirement.
James added: “Matthew’s provided a great service to ice hockey over the years so it was a pleasure to do it for him.”
80th anniversary of the D-Day landings
Choice Brands, together with Knight Sportswear, crafted and designed a watch to specially commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings of World War II in Normandy, France.
Upon the release of the watch, the company stated the watch: “Encompasses British design and craftsmanship which not only admires those brave men and women but lets us continually remind ourselves of their sacrifice.”
The watch is particularly unique because of its engraving of different beaches, along with their names. I asked James about what spurred the creative decisions, to which he answered: “What sells really well, especially with veterans or people in the military is if you do create a military watch and if you can add the veteran’s name or the soldier’s name and maybe their battalion or their service number, it works really well. Because we did quite an intricate design, we could only print the name of the serviceman on the watch. It was quite difficult to get space for the name as well as have the map of the five beaches on the engraving.
“There are very few veterans alive from D-Day but their children and grandchildren are alive. They The personalised watches make great presents. You can gift a D-Day watch with your father’s name or your grandfather’s name on it. People keep it, and that’s the important part. They wear it with pride.”
Blackbushe Heritage Trust timepieces
Choice Brands was approached to create a special collection of timepieces for supporters of the Blackbushe Heritage Trust.
The collection is split in two parts: the first part is motivated by Patrick Marchant of RPM Aviation, as a thank you to volunteers who recovered the Vickers Viking 1B G-AGRW aircraft from Bad Vöslau, Austria in April 2023. The second part was then created to sell directly to supporters and visitors to the Blackbushe Airport Heritage Centre in Surrey.
James explained that the uniqueness of the collection is foregrounded in individualisation. He declared that: “What’s special about that watch and keyring set is they’re individually numbered and there’s a short history on the inside of the lid of the airport, of the plane they brought back from Austria and what they are doing with the plane. We put the silhouette behind it the history and it was really quite popular. Because they’re numbered and because they have that little bit of history on it, they sold out.”
