Joti Reehal
My Story
“I’ve been around fabrics and manufacturing all my life. It’s in my bones.”
I’ve grown up in and around manufacturing environments, with fabrics, cutting tables, seamstresses, bales of feathers and fibre… packing tables ever since I can remember. My childhood memories consist of running up and down the factory floor, while Mum and Dad were hard at work.
Memories come rushing back every time I smell freshly cut fabrics.
As I grew, so did my parent’s business.
Everyday, I’d come from school and do my homework. Then I’d go and help out in the factory for a few hours in the evenings and weekends, which soon became the norm.
My parents made duvets and pillows back then and sold wholesale, so every evening the shelves needed to be full for them to sell in the morning. The hustle and bustle of customers in and out all day was thrilling and exciting to watch… even as a child.
“What I didn’t realise then, it moulded me as a child, to love what I do today.”
I graduated from Royal Holloway, University of London with a BSc in Management Studies and went onto work in sales, working for a networking distributor for 10 years.
I had an absolute blast!
I learnt all my sales skills here. I worked myself up and around the company until I was one of the top sales people managing major accounts.
The sales environment gave me a rush of adrenaline. It was a lot of pressure but the rewards were just as big.
It was such a fun environment to be in and I absolutely loved it…
….Until life had other plans for me.
I was suddenly struck with Rheumatoid Arthritis and it hit me hard.
I fought with the pain, work, and family life, for four and a half long years.
It eventually crippled me and it became agonising to move my body.
I would be crying with pain when I entered the sales office every day. This went on for a long time.
Everyday I would wipe away my tears without anyone seeing, and carry on – until I couldn’t bear the pain any longer.
Then one day, I was sent home from work because I was in so much pain I couldn’t move.
My life stopped. Everything came crashing down around me and I came to a standstill.
We take life for granted don’t we? We don’t realise what we have got until it’s gone.
One day I was working and bringing in millions of pounds of business, and the next day I was at home. It was hard to get my head around it.
I often say, if I knew that I was never going back to work again, I probably would have never left that day.
Having pain and dealing with an illness that not only cripples you slowly, knowing it’s never going to leave you, is hard to comprehend. It’s difficult to get to terms with what you had and what you are able to do now.
Physically it takes everything out of you… but… mentally and emotionally… it’s another thing completely.
It took me years to get back on track again and I feel like the luckiest woman in the world to have been blessed with my family and their love and support that’s fuelled me to get me back up and to where I am today.
My family could see my pain and did all they could to help me through the most difficult days of my life.
But mentally, I felt braindead.
My saviour. My Godsend.
My beloved Dad.
He saw and felt how down I was and how much I was hurting. He stepped in, as he knew best.
He asked me to make his first website. In those days the internet had just taken off and he gave me a huge task, to get him on the world wide web. I had no idea how I was going to do this and started to talk to people I knew in my old company to get the job done.
I’d gone full circle without even realising it. I started helping him out and handling enquiries as they slowly started trickling in.
We started selling duvets and pillows online. I was working from home whenever I could.
But, at least I was able to put my sales skills to use and that love of the manufacturing environment slowly started to rekindle in my life again.
Selling duvets and pillows was a great business then and my family were very successful, but international trade opened up… competition became fierce… and margins became smaller and smaller.
It was also a very seasonal business. Things had to change for the successful future of the family business.
One day, I called my Dad and said “what are you up to Dad”?
He replied, “what am I going to do, nobody wants duvets in the summer, I am just sitting here twiddling my thumbs”.
So I said, “why don’t we make cushions Dad?”
“Who will buy cushions from me?”, he said.
I replied, “Why not, you have the fabrics, fillings, machinery and staff. Let’s do it”.
He said, OK, you bring in the business and I will make them”.
I actually didn’t think about what I was doing then.
I just went for it.
I think the fact that I had my parents as support, I didn’t care. Failure wasn’t even a consideration. I jumped right in.
This was the moment my life at Autumn Down really took off.
It’s where my journey as an entrepreneur began.
I guess it’s that love of manufacturing, those early memories of laughing and playing in the factory which makes me love being in that environment more and more now.
Fast forward a good few years and we have developed not only cushions, throws, soft furnishings, but also pet products, kitchen products and even some children’s products.
We have worked with amazing people and have developed a vast range of outstanding bespoke homeware products.
The products we make today have sold (and are selling) in Harrods, Selfridges, Heals. Not only do we have clients in the UK, but also in Europe and even as far away as Australia.
It wasn’t until I sat back and thought about it the other day that…
I have had conversations with clients from the UK, Belgium, Australia and India – all in one day. I am blessed.
Our clients are varied and range from interior designers, to product designers and retailers from so many walks of life.
Over my years, I have worked with a myriad of product designers and developed products for them. Through experience, I have learnt everything and more about soft furnishings and putting products together.
On a daily basis, I speak with clients to make their products better for their end user.
I provide knowledge and practical help to my client for them to provide better solutions for their customers.
A lot of our clients are small businesses and it fills my heart with pride and joy when we work with them, develop their ideas into products, get them all made in our factory in the UK, and then watch their businesses grow and flourish.
It gives me so much satisfaction to watch someone grow and help them along their journey and to make something for themselves.
Autumn Down, has given me the best experience I could’ve ever imagined. I love it.
The fact that it’s my parent’s business, makes me so proud.
Even if I worked for someone else, I would never have gained this much knowledge and experience.
After all, I guess one could say I have worked at Autumn Down all my conscious life!
The fact that I am able to give back to my parents and family on a daily basis, is an amazing feeling that is priceless for me.
So, now it’s time for me!
The love and excitement of discovering beautiful fabrics, creating ideas and then watching the two combine and come to life in a product is thrilling.
I have been blessed to have fallen into the life of soft furnishings. It was obviously meant to be.
God, the universe, the divine, fate, whatever you want to call it, always has a bigger and better plan for us, we just don’t realise it.
For me, any room, be it residential or commercial when accessorised with a change of cushions makes the room ‘sing’ to you.
I love the look of a person’s face when just changing small things in their environment creates that homely, cosy and comfortable vibe, one they love to ‘live’ in… entertain in… just be in….
A pop of colour, an addition of texture, a complimenting pattern, simply adds positivity and good vibes in any environment.
I take pleasure in adding simple additions to the room that are in tune with the person living there and reflective of their personality.
I believe enjoying the space around you and the tranquility of your environment brings peace and comfort to your subconscious, to your soul and to your being.
So that brings me to today. A new beginning, a new journey and I am SO EXCITED!
Hello Asraana x
