News

We have been having to review our prices in the wake of huge increases in raw materials over the past year. We have been manufacturing for 22 years now and have never seen the sort of rises in materials that we experienced in 2011. In some cases it is good news for the people at the end of the chain - the British organic wool we use has leapt 100% and although that has had a big impact on the prices of some of our products it's great to see a much undervalued fibre coming back into demand. Along with wool costs, our natural latex has risen by 22% and organic cotton has been going up pretty much every month.

All manufacturers are seeing these sort of changes and some are responding by pushing down quality by sourcing cheaper, inferior materials and cutting corners in manufacturing processes. Some of the bigger players aren't playing fairly by putting pressure on producers, suppliers and manufacturers to cut costs by driving down wages.

We can't keep our prices at 2011 levels. We have just put our mattresses up by an average of 6% and our futons by 4.5%. But we can promise that these rises are fair in the light of changes to material costs and that we really do keep margins as tight as we can. It's why we don't (or, more accurately, can't) have sales or offer discounts but why our mattresses and futons cost less than any comparable products, often a lot less. We use the best raw materials, sometimes tracking down our own, unique supply chains, sometimes sourcing the same fillings from the same suppliers as companies that charge much, much more than we do.

We don't sell to shops or operate a wholesale structure. Our approach is simple and straightforward - we make great stuff and sell directly from our workshop. In many ways our prices are wholesale prices, to everyone. So although we can't reach all our customers geographically (but that doesn't seem to stop people travelling from all over the UK to visit our shop!) our mattresses and futons are within the reach of more people in terms of cost. It means we are growing more slowly, but it's the way we like it and after 22 years we know it's the way we want to do business.

Well, we are down to our last few orders to send off here at Dojo. Our Ecoshop has now closed until 2012 and the workshop is slowing down. We re-open on Saturday 7th January 2012. We are looking forward to some rest and relaxation alongside some feasting and merriment!

It's the end of another busy year (our 21st!) for which we'd like to thank all our customers both old and new and wish everyone a contented Christmastime and a bright New Year! Sarah & Jonathan.

We are approaching our winter closing times. When the clocks change and the daylight shortens we close a little earlier on a Saturday so that we don't have to do all our deliveries in the dark! We have also found that people rarely venture out to our shop after 4 in the winter. So from Saturday 5th November our opening times will be 10 - 4 (rather than 5). Fridays remain as 10 - 5. Additionally we will be completely closed on Saturday 26th November as we are on an aikido tutor training day.

We are taking a late summer holiday so our workshop will be closed from 2.00pm on Saturday 17th September, re-opening on Wednesday 28th September 2011. This means that the shop will be closed from 2.00 pm on Saturday 17th and completely on Saturday and Sunday 24th and 25th of September.

We are running our annual Aikido Camp next weekend, so the shop and workshop will be closed on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th June.

DojoEco is back from holiday! We started back in the workshop today and our shop is open 10 - 5 as usual Fridays and Saturdays. We opened up the back doors of the workshop today and let the sun flood in - Manchester is going to be the hottest place in the UK today! Joy!

We have had a fine time camping in Italy for a month and found great food (and espresso!), people, architecture, landscapes, beaches, history and hiking. Highlights were Elba and Genoa. Elba, where we stayed for 12 nights and spent most of that time exploring the island on foot as it’s small enough to walk from one side to the other and much of it is a national park with a comprehensive network of hiking trails. Genoa for its contrast of vibrant city buzz and labyrinthine old quarter - the largest medieval city in Europe.

People often ask us how we can take a month off and it’s true, it does take quite a bit of arranging, lots of extra work beforehand and some patience from customers too, but it’s wonderful to have the chance to deeply unwind, dream and idle and come back with fresh perspective and energy - long may it last!

We are rapidly heading towards our annual May shutdown. This year we have two other closures that are bookending our big shutdown - Easter before it and an Aikido seminar at the end. This means we will be closing on Wednesday the 20th of April and won’t be re-opening until Friday the 3rd of June. We aren’t closing for any longer than normal, it’s just that it’s all coming in one go...

If you are thinking of making an order soon for something that has to be made up in our workshop, like a mattress or futon, rather than just taken from stock, then keep these dates in mind as the closer we get to the 20th the less manufacturing slots we will have. Orders are currently taking about 10 days to make up.

If you aren’t in a hurry but want to get ahead of the rush when we re-open in June then let us know before we close and we will put your order into our schedule for the first couple of weeks back - normally we ask for a 20% deposit on ordering but we won’t expect any payments before we are back and open again.