It’s with pleasure I am introducing Susie Shaw and Sea Emporium. I have come to know Susie through Shelley Barrowman, who I have known since she came into yachting at age 19. Let me allow Susie to tell you about the Sea Emporium journey.
My name is Susie Shaw. I was in the yachting industry for over 8 years before I stepped ashore with Sea Emporium. During my time working onboard, I worked on various new builds, and charter and private yachts as a chief stewardess. It was through this experience setting up new builds, that I noticed there wasn’t much support for the crew, especially the interior with the purchasing process. So, I wanted to try and marry this support with supplying luxury goods.
I have always wanted to make sure that whoever I employed in the sales team, and customer facing roles, had that similar experience to me. It is crucial that Sea Emporium provides the best customer service, with a true understanding of what the clients need and want.
Karin, our Italian sales representative has 15 year’s yachting experience, with many new builds under her belt. She has considerable knowledge from her time as chief stewardess that she puts to great use in her role. She is now based in Italy and helps take care of our Italian new build clients.
Shelley is our newest team member and is our French Sales representative. She was in yachting for over 12 years and for 7 of those was a chief stewardess. She joined Sea emporium in February 2020. Shelley travels from San Remo to La Ciotat and Toulon and enjoys meeting and visiting clients on site.
What do we supply?
We supply all interior products. Ranging from, linens, tableware, service accessories, stationery, charter gifts, personalised giveaways, service accessories, bathroom accessories, lighting, leather goods, exterior furniture, mattresses, toiletries, and so much more.
We really wanted to make sure that we could be a one stop shop for a new build or refit. The list of items we can supply, or source, is endless
Where do we source certain specialty items from?
For the linens we source these mainly Italy, as is where some of the best linens in the world are made
We have our own linen range, manufactured in our factory in Italy, only made with the best Egyptian cotton, going all the way up to 1400 Thread count. We can create bespoke designs and do crew and guest bed linens.
We mainly source in France for Limoges Porcelain, the best of the best.
We have also started to source ethical and eco-friendly handmade products from artisans in developing countries that practise fair trade and can offer beautiful handmade pieces which creates a story for the client.
What challenging orders have we had?
A few years ago, we had the exciting opportunity to outfit an entire palace in Dubai and we had only 2 weeks to deliver everything – we were able to outfit custom bed linens for 16 bedrooms in this short time frame and our factory worked night shifts to order to complete this order.
We are very experienced in working with the last-minute changes that new build yachts require. Often, they need everything in a very short time frame. Luckily, our linen factory works extremely fast and can fulfil most requests. This is the bonus of manufacturing our own linens, as we have control over lead times and quality control.
A really special item we put together, was for a yacht that wanted a special monopoly board made. It even had their own Ferrari and handbags made in miniature for the pieces
What bespoke items can we supply?
The options are endless. We are able to create leather accessories in a wide range of different leathers and suedes in order to co-ordinate to the interior décor. Our sales reps have samples of the fabrics, so that we can make sure we match the colour and style perfectly
We can help a client with the design of custom objects or one-off special pieces for owner gifts – such as a custom-made exotic wood jewellery box for madam.
Our custom linens, blankets, towels can even be made to match the yachts own special pantone colour
We can print yacht logos onto luxury cashmere products.
Sea Emporium has even supplied a bespoke sugar cube in the shape of the yacht’s logo.
For tableware ideas, we work with our own tableware designers that add designs onto tableware using hand painted artisans to create special pieces that are unique to the yacht. We can do this on silverware and crystal as well
We also make beautiful bespoke stationery that offers litho printing, foiling and embossing
Toiletries can also be personalised to the client/ yacht and we can even create a unique fragrance for a yacht.
Contact us for exciting, bespoke ideas and suggestions, we enjoy a challenge.
How have we changed working now with COVID-19?
As a company we have always aimed to not just supply products, but also offer advice to our clients, making sure they get the right product for their yacht. We try to bring our knowledge as ex chief stewardesses to help in any way we can, knowing exactly how to help the chief stewardess or captain through their project.
During COVID-19 our sales team hasn’t been able to meet clients as much as we normally do, so to help us engage with our clientele, we put together weekly tip videos. Topics ranging from new builds, silver care, candle care and how to take care of cashmere. We really hope we manage to help some people learn a little something and that people find watching our videos interesting.
Please contact us at Sea Emporium if we can help at all for your upcoming project or if you need any advice.
Susie Shaw
+353 42 9359202
