Like many small companies, we have worked tirelessly over the last few years to adapt to the changing economy. We are proud to have weathered the storms of Brexit, the pandemic, and the recent cost-of-living crisis.

In 2017, I founded Wild & Kind with the explicit goal of combatting loneliness and isolation. As a Community Interest Company, our primary revenue stream stems from ethical garment decoration, which has also allowed us to deliver on social impact goals.

We expanded in early 2020 by taking on a 2000sq ft community space. This allowed us to grow, build a community, and have ample workshop space. However, our plans had to be put on hold within weeks when the pandemic hit just weeks after moving into this space.

We had to adapt to continue operating successfully, so we switched to a heavier focus on production through this time. We’ve loved being able to provide this service for you all over the years, however, we’ve found it increasingly more difficult to focus back on our social aims while still operating as a garment decoration company. 

We started Wild & Kind to deliver social impact, and the reality is that we have not been able to reach our social aims through this business model. The whole point of running a Community Interest Company is to get things to a point where you’re generating enough profit to make positive changes within your community, but when you’re making a loss, or just breaking even from the business model it just doesn’t work. 

We’ve given things a fair shot over the years, and although it was a difficult decision, we’ve decided to wind down most of our production services so that we can have a hard reset and focus back on social impact again. This is just the beginning of a new, exciting and tbh terrifying journey for us, but we are deeply passionate about creating social change in Scotland, and this is the only way for us to do that.

We would like to thank everyone we’ve worked with, as well as all of our suppliers who have been so supportive over the years. The ongoing economic turbulence has meant the closure of a lot of small companies and organisations across the UK and without patience and support from our stakeholders, we may have also gone under too, but now is the time to take action and come back with a new plan. 

We will continue to update you with our future plans. In the meantime, we are converting our premises back into community-focused studio spaces, and we will be launching a third-sector community room in the new year. 

See you soon!