The Paris team has returned after an exhausting 9-day show.  We haven't done the sums yet, but we think that despite the move from the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in an up-market area of Paris, to the Paris Nord Villepinte expo site which is much less glamorous, we have had one of our best shows.

More news and pics in a few days when we have recovered from the return trip (10 hours of driving in one day, from Roissy en France, where we stayed, to Downclose Farm), and recovered from the various bugs that visitors to our stand shared with us!.

Our stand at the Salon du Cheval 2009

As we've already reported on the Blog we were thrilled, in October, to be made Somerset's 'Exporter of the Year 2009' as part of their prestigeous Business of the Year awards.  In the build-up to the Awards ceremony students from Bridgwater College of Art & Technology made several short videos illustrating life at Hilton Herbs.  Now, thanks to the Somerset Chamber of Commerce, this video can be seen on the Sky News website by following this link http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/video/Little-Big-Shots-Hilton-Herbs/Video/200912115494663?lpos=video_News_in_Video_Home_Region_8&lid=VIDEO_15494663_Little_Big_Shots_Hilton_Herbs

Some of the Hilton Herbs team all 'glammed up' for the Awards Ceremony

Well, here we are again, its hard to believe that yet another year has gone by and its the Salon du Cheval 2009!  This time the Salon, which is in its 38th year and which is the premier retail show in France, and possibly in Europe, has a new home.  In past years the Salon has taken place at the Parc des Expositions at Porte de Versailles, in the south of Paris, however this year, unlike migrating birds that generally go south, Salon has moved north.  Its new home is the Parc des Expositions at Villepinte, just next door to the Charles de Gaulle airport.

We spent last Thursday and Friday building our stand (pic below) and the show started on Saturday.  Hours are from 10am until 7pm each day (with late night shopping Tuesday until 10pm) until Sunday 14th December.

For more info visit www.salon-cheval.com and we are Stand No K113 in Hall 6 - come and see us if you are in Paris over the next week!

Our stand in Paris with Tim Couzens, our homeopathic veterinary consultant

Nearly a month has passed since we glammed up for the Somerset Business Awards dinner and came home bearing the Somerset 'Exporter of the Year 2009' trophy, as well as being second runner-up in the 'Business of the Year 5-50 Employees' award.  The tuxedos have gone back, the posh frocks have been put away in the wardrobe, and life has pretty much gone back to the normal.  We are however very proud of our trophy and it adorns the product display in our Reception, here at Downclose Farm, the Hilton Herbs HQ.  Since the Awards Dinner we've shipped another half dozen or so export orders, launched our brand-new website, www.hiltonherbs.com, started our '20th year of trading' celebrations, and, as reported elsewhere on the blog, had a stand at Your Horse Live!

our Exporter of the Year 2009 trophy

We have now received the video which was made by students from Bridgwater College, and which was shown at the Awards Dinner just prior to us receiving our award.  We thought people might like a glimpse behind the scenes of a small but very dynamic company that exports to thirty-three countries worldwide.  So don't be deceived by the bucolic address, or think that we have straw in our hair......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob5yMHsnmxY

Another busy week has gone by but its not completely finished as we're off to Bridgwater tonight to talk to some nice dog people from Paws on the Levels www.pawsonthelevels.org.uk about herbs for dogs.  I'm taking along my own dog, Jazz, who is living and breathing proof that herbs are good for dogs!

Jazz on the beach at Eype

Peel Park Primary School, in Accrington, Cheshire, is the very first school in England to have its own pigeon loft, which was set up in 2008. The pigeon loft was the brain-child of Terry Slattery, Peel Park's resident ‘lollipop man', himself a pigeon fancier, and it started when Terry bought one of his winning racing pigeons to school for the children to see. The Peel Park pigeons are used as a teaching aid in maths, science, and other lessons across the curriculum.

Peel Park is very proud to have been given one of the Queen's cock pigeons, in her capacity as patron of the The Royal Pigeon Racing Association, to use in their loft. They have also started racing their pigeons and recently one of their birds came 3rd, in a One-Loft Race of 176 miles, winning a £5,000 prize for the school.

The Peel Park pigeons have attracted a lot of attention and they, and the children involved in the project, have been featured on the BBC's Breakfast TV. They have also been visited and interviewed by the team from the BBC's regional North-West Tonight, as well as Radio Lancashire.

Hilton Herbs became involved with Peel Park when we took a stand at the British Homing World "Show of the Year", at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, in January of this year. Manning the stand was Martin Brooks, who, in his spare time is our Production & Export Manager and ‘de-facto' pigeon expert. He was aided and abetted by top pigeon fancier Mike Staddon, who lives locally to Hilton Herbs and has extensively trialled our pigeon products.

Whilst at the show Martin met Terry Slattery who, at the time, had just started to work on the Peel Park loft project for the school. We subsequently supplied Terry with one each of our special ‘Mike Staddon' product packs and Terry is absolutely convinced that the success of the Peel Park pigeons can, in part, be attributed to their being supplemented with the Hilton Herbs pigeon products.

 Terry Slattery, with one of the Peel Park students, and their winning pigeon

Its the first day of the show at Your Horse Live!, National Agricultural Centre, Stoneleigh, Warwicks.  Come and see us in the Marquee on Stand M11!  We've got a brand-new stand in the warm and bright Marquee, and we are celebrating the launch of our new website www.hiltonherbs.com We've got a 15% show offer and free carriage on anything you want to order on the stand.  We're also celebrating the start of our 20th year of trading and have lots  of freebies, car stickers, and gifts for you as well to celebrate the occasion!

If you want expert herbal advice then take the opportunity to come and talk to Hilary Self, our resident Medical Herbalist, who is here for the two days of the show.  Come and meet Jane, who runs our Helpline, put the face to the voice!

Come and see us, tell us you saw the article on the Blog and we'll give you a free Hilton herbs mug!

Our stand at Your Horse Live! 2009

Some months ago Martin, our Production Manager, entered us for the Somerset Business Awards 2009.  There are various categories and he entered us for Exporter of the Year and Best Business with 5-50 Employees.  As reported earlier on the Blog we were judged by no less than Patricia Marks, Chair of the Federation of Small Businesess, and a week or so back a group of students from Bridgwater College came and did lots of filming.  Then we got our invite to the posh Awards Dinner - only short-listed companies were invited - and the tension started to mount!

Bosses, Hilary and Tony, and a group of us decided to make a party of it - win or lose we were going to have a good time!  We all spent some time and money in the preparation as most of us hadn't worn seriously smart gear for ages.  Easy for the boys, just a trip to Marion Baker's shop in Yeovil to hire their DJs, less easy for us girls.  What constitutes evening dress in this day and age?  Long dresses or skirts?  Personally I don't do long frocks, they make me look like Florence from the Magic Roundabout, so I consulted the internet and discovered that a cocktail dress (on the knee if you please!) or mid-length was acceptable.  Thank heavens for the Debretts website and Per Una!

The fateful day arrived and we closed the office at 1pm (sorry folks!) and departed to primp and preen for our evening out.  The taxi collected Hilary & Tony, myself, and Jane (who runs the Helpline) at the end of the afternoon from Downclose Farm and the rest of the folk who were still working came to see us off on our journey to collect Martin from Yeovil, Nick (our Warehouse Manager), and Janice (our Accountant).

The Awards Dinner was held at the Junction 24 Business Centre and the evening was outstanding, made all the better by Hilton Herbs becoming Somerset Exporter of the Year 2009, beating off competition from Avalon Science and Cuddledry.  We were so thrilled and were easily the noisiest in our celebrations, everyone else was very discreet.  After watching the lovely video that the boys from Bridgwater had made, Hilary, Tony, and Martin (well, it was his idea!) went up to the collect the trophy and Hilary made her hastily prepared acceptance speech!  We also came third in the category for Business of the Year 5-50 Employees, which was great!

A very proud H & T with the Exporter of the Year award

It was a fabulous evening with an outstanding buffet dinner with ingredients entirely sourced in Somerset, together with entertainment from students at Somerset Arts & Technology College who treated us to a great song and dance programme.

So now we are back home, DJs and dresses packed away for the next occasion, life goes back to normal and we plan our campaign for next year - Ecommerce Business of the Year trophy we think!!!

If you think we just do products for horses and dogs, well think again, and check back here soon for news of our latest success!

Coo!  Does that give you a clue??

 Echinacea angustifolia

 Do you use complementary therapy for yourself and your family?  Even if you don't would you at least like to have the freedom to choose to do so at some stage in the future?  If so then please CLICK HERE to read Hilary's letter.

You can also go the website of the National Institute for Medical Herbalists where you will find all the information you need relating to this proposed legislation.

There is an online petition concerning the proposed legislation and if you CLICK HERE the link will take you straight to the petition.  The deadling for signing is 26th October 2009.

If you would like to download Hilary's letter and read it later or print it out and pass it onto a friend please CLICK HERE.

CLICK HERE for a template letter which can be sent, either to your MP or to the Consulatitve Body.

If you are thinking that this won't affect you because it only concerns human herbal medicine, and you only use herbs for your animals, then think again!  Do you remember the time when wormers for horses were only available from your vet?

It is very possible that if legislation is brought in to prevent medical herbalists prescribing herbs, then the next stage might be similar legislation for animal supplements.  Imagine if you had to go to your veterinary practice to buy all your supplements for your animals?

The online petition sadly has fewer signatures than a similar petition against selling kittens in pet shops.  Whilst kittens in pet shops is also an important issue as well, the proposed legislation against herbalists will, simply put, prevent them from carrying out the function that they have trained for, and are qualified to do. 

 Milk Thistle Flower

We're having a new digital phone system put in here at Hilton Herbs.  The install started on Monday and seems to be taking forever, despite the best efforts of our two cheery engineers.  On Tuesday morning, as a group of us were sitting in the meeting room, we heard the unmistakable sounds of someone crawling through the roof space.  "Oh" said Martin, "That'll be the telephone engineer coming through the ceiling!"  Never was a truer word spoken in jest, as seconds later he did exactly that!

Fortunately it was only his leg, but it gave everyone, especially the engineer, a bit of a shock!  Jane, who runs the Helpline, was very disapointed because, as our First Aider, she didn't have more to do than administer tea and sympathy!  However he was back, a bit stiff and bruised, on Wednesday to carry on with the install and temporary repairs have been done with 'gaffer' tape - amazing stuff!  What did we do before 'gaffer' tape??

However, as will all these bits of new technology now we have a manual which looks like the Encyclopaedia Britannica, but a lot less interesting, which we'll be obliged to read just to find out how to transfer a call!