ABOUT MY TRUGS

In a recent nationwide survey the Sussex trug was voted the fifth most essential gardening accessory. There are of course other options available - multicoloured plastic trugs - buckets, extremely poor quality foreign imports etc etc. My trugs are all hand made by myself and in 1971 I was awarded the British Design Centre Standard kite mark for design excellence.
I work alone with the exception of my wife Jaqui PhD (packaging and handling department) and sign and date every trug on the base. Thanks to Jaqui, we offer very rapid delivery, if a trug is ordered before 10:30 A.M. you will receive it the next day via Fed-Ex, so if it's a last minute present, just ring us. Jaqui will include a personal message on a card (no charge) for a gift that will be appreciated and used for many, many years by the recipient.

Then, 19 years old, slim,
long blonde hair.

Now, 50+ (age! not waist)
no hair (nice colour though!)

I commenced working life at fifteen as an apprentice watchmaker, much to the disappointment of my father as he was a woodsman, so both expected and wanted me to follow him. He said being a watchmaker was a 
                              "pansies job"!
                               Three situations led me into trugmaking:- 
                               Firstly, some bright spark invented the digital watch, thus rendering the majority of
                               watchmakers to either unemployment or redirection and eventually one could buy 10
                               digital watches for the price of a service to a mechanical watch and to be truthful, they
                               were infinitely better timekeepers! 
                               Secondly, my Father died and as my mother died four years earlier, I had to enter the
                               world of bedsit-land on an impossible apprentices wage of £4 10 shillings listening to Leonard Cohen (music to cut-yer-throat by!!).
Thirdly, I felt an underlying feeling that I should be working in wood, as my father desired. So, cutting a very long story short, I found a job as a trainee trugmaker and learned the trade.

                                                 Some years later, I was lured into carpentry and spent many years building
                                                 Log Cabins all over the country (Dadwould have been proud of me!).
                                                 Whilst this was very rewarding as it enabled me to see the most beautiful
                                                 parts of both this country and others, I was travelling on average 2,000
                                                 miles per week before being on site for 45+ hours per week. If the work 
                                                 site was in excess of 2 ½ driving hours, we would stay away.

                                                 
                            
                              During these periods away from home, I spent many evening hours in B&B's &
                              Hotels writing a book titled 'How To Solve  Cryptic Crosswords'. The first publisher I
                              approached liked it, published it and has since sold almost one million copies (sadly, if
                              you google Kevin Skinner, I come up as an author not a trugmaker!). 
                              While working in Inverness Scotland, during breakfast in a B&B, a resident brought in
                              her daughter and sat her in a high chair. The child was so like my beautiful little daughter
                              Stevie, I missed her so much I knew I couldn't continue this occupation, I found the
                              toilet, had a little cry (my dad was right, I am a pansy) so decided there and then to find
                              a workshop in my hometown of Hailsham, return to what I enjoyed most, and see my
                              family daily. So that's what I did - and here I am. I don't groan anymore when I wake 
on a Monday morning, conversely, I'm excited to be going to work doing what I love. I am constantly asked by customers "how can you make trugs cheaper than anyone else"? Simple! I work hard and have no 
dinner or lunch breaks as I cannot just sit there and look at material waiting to be transformed. I have no large overheads, just Jaqui! (disregard that last statement!) I have no watch (digital or otherwise), I go to work when I wake, and cycle home when I'm tired (via my local, Jaqui thinks I work an hour longer than I actually do). Additionally, those that sell at vastly higher prices sell less numbers; I need to be fully employed. So here we are.