YOUR CHANCE TO WIN THE SAME CARLTON BAG AS THE CELEBRITIES AT BAFTA WILL BE CARRYING…

Answer two easy questions, and stake your claim for the magnificent Carlton Eclipse Spinner Trolley 53 cm.
Click here to participate. HURRY… time is running out. Quiz open till 30th April 09.

AND THE AWARD GOES TO...

CARLTON GOES TO BAFTA

Come 24 April 09 and the celebrities, the glitterati and the divas will line up at the BAFTA Television awards. The 250-odd list of nominees at the awards will be carrying home a 4 wheeler Mirror finish Eclipse Trolley case filled with gifts from the BAFTA. So for all the nominees this year – we wish all the best for the awards. Even if you miss out on the award, our glorious Eclipse should be a good consolation prize.

As if it needed telling: The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is a British charity that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation. They are often cited as a British equivalent to the Oscars.

(Don’t) Believe it at your own risk: The modern day paparazzi has hit upon the Eclipse range from Carlton as the preferred tracking beacon for the rich and famous. Beauties from the Miss England competition and the Miss Belgium competition – and now the “who-is-who” of British television. Beware if you are carrying an Eclipse.

THE DYNAMIC DUO

We caught up with Carlton’s budding young designers Alex Swainson and Peter Burns to see what is happening in the world of Carlton and what inspired them to come up with those funky new designs…..

Q. Tell us about your past experience/ background in design- where you guys came from?
PETER: I Graduated form Northumbria School of Design with 1st Class hons in Product Design. I then worked as packaging/ Graphic designer with luggage/ leather goods and accessories for brands such as; Carlton/ Pierre Cardin/ Gino Ferrari / Wenger/ Swiss Gear!

ALEX: I would say the first thing that really inspired me to get into Art/design started back when I was a kid. My Uncle who is an Artist used to stay with us from time to time and I used to sit and watch him draw and sketch with charcoal. I also had this pretty mental Science teacher at school that used to do this pretty cool experiment that basically involved lighting a massive fireball indoors (which was meant to demonstrate convection). Mr Eamus you are my hero! I guess the combination of both interests naturally lead me down the path to study Industrial Design and Technology at Loughborough University. I graduated with a 2.1 BA degree with Honours. I then worked for a design consultancy called Synapse in Hertfordshire designing Audio equipment. I also worked for Smiths Medical designing medical equipment

Q. What are your inspirations when designing?
PETER: I Love Travelling- observing the way people interact with bags and luggage while I travel. Fashion and Music trends inspire me also!

ALEX: Travel is obviously important when it comes to travel goods. You always need to keep your eyes peeled when passing through airports and train stations just to see what people are carrying. I also look at cars for inspiration- for luxury ranges I look at Aston Martin and I admire the new Mini for reviving an old classic.

Q. What are your aspirations with Carlton and where would you like to take Carlton ‘design-wise’?
PETER: At the moment I see Carlton products to be at the forefront of cutting edge and modern design. Moving forward I would like to take Carlton to the next level, to be an inspirational brand, design led with constant new ideas and innovations to set us apart from the competition. We constantly focus on usability, functionality and new innovations, so, as part of the team I would like to create the next big thing in luggage!

ALEX: I like what we are trying to do with the brand in terms of pushing the boundaries to develop more innovative and design driven products. Every designer aspires to be working on projects of this nature. Eventually I would like to see the brand grow big enough to be leading the way in all aspects of design and manufacturing.

Q. Tell us a bit about yourselves guys- What are your hobbies and how do you like to relax when you are not at work?
PETER: I enjoy Laughing, BBQs in the sun, Water Sports, Fashion and the sweet sound of Music. I also love travelling- drawing and painting when I the have time and socializing with my friends and knocking out a few shapes on the dance floor! Watch out Justin Timberlake!

ALEX: I enjoy Karate, Skiing, Having a few beers, and I’m a bit of a film addict.

Q. What are your favourite brands and who are the designers you respect ?
PETER: My favorite brand is G-Star, I am not such a fan of the clothing but the way they market the brand is amazing! I have a lot of respect for Jonathan Ives (Apple designer) who actually graduated from my university course! He has a very laid back and simple approach to design.

ALEX: I admire Jonathan I’ ve for what he has done for the Apple brand, Marc Newson for his simplistic approach. My Favourite brands are Paul Smith, and of course Apple!

Q. What are you listening to at the moment?
PETER: Well on my ipod I have on repeat music by the Stone Roses, Kings of Leon, Justice and Little Comets (Check them out!)

ALEX: Yes I too and fro from MGMT, Coldplay and Flight of the Conchords- love them all!

Q. Who are your personal style icons
PETER: Jonny Deep’s style in the Movie Blow! You can’t get cooler than that! Also my good friend Harry, he’s bizarre!

ALEX: Jim Carry in Ace Ventura very classy.

Q. What do you think the future of luggage is?

PETER: Well I think the way forward is: Lightweight, fashion orientated (Colour!), Futuristic/ Techno fabrics…. Plus a few other things we are working on the moment, however these are TOP SECRET!

ALEX: I am loving the Space travel theme- futuristic- Especially if you look at the Virgin Galactic brand its great.

Q. What is your all time favourite piece of Carlton luggage?
PETER: Its got to be the Airtec hard sided! Also the new ‘Marc’ business range is very nice.
ALEX: The old Airtec case. Everyone who knows Carlton always talks about how they have had this case for 15 years and it is still going strong. It’s a classic

Q. What piece of luggage will you be holding this season?
PETER: A Purple Multidrive spinner!
ALEX: A Magnum Upright

Q. What are you reading at the moment?

PETER: Shantaram…just finished
ALEX: American Mafia

Q. One sentence to describe you and your work
PETER: A Modern Traditionalist!
ALEX: A bit of a dreamer with an obsessive streak.

Q. Tell us something we don’t know about you???
PETER: I used to live in HONG KONG FOR 6 months (PART OF A PLACEMENT FOR UNI!)
ALEX: I have entered Knockdown Karate competitions a few times.

Q. Your Favorite quotes…
PETER: “When you aim for perfection, you discover it's a moving target” George Fisher
ALEX: “It’s nice to be important, but its more important to be nice” Scooter 1993

Thanks guys!

A CONSUMER'S DELIGHT

Time and again, we receive some nice words from our consumers which really perk us up for the next round. Recently, we got a mail from a customer, expressing her delight at the service she got at our Bullring store.
Excerpts:

“Dear Carlton,

I am writing to inform you of the excellent customer service I have received at the hands of your team at the Birmingham store, in particular the Asian sir who served me on the day…
…I came across your Carlton store in Birmingham on the 20/03/2009. The young sir came to help me, he explained to me the difference between the different cases, best value for money and my travel needs…
…I had not ever heard of Carlton before, he explained to me the past and present of Carlton and knew so much so as to even be able to tell me the name of the owner of the company, I have to say I am impressed by the depth of knowledge there seems to be a clear passion for the job…
...I would just like to thank the young sir for his efforts and would encourage this further, I would also like to take this opportunity thanking the heads of the company in their success…

Thank You
Maysoon Fattah”

It’s our endeavor to continue delighting our consumers like this, and more. A pat on the back for the team and lets continue to strive towards the Carlton spirit – “Lets travel together”.

CARLTON STORES CELEBRATED MOTHERS" DAY IN UK

LOOKING GOOD….

Carlton not one to feel left behind with occasions or celebrations; Mothers Day being one of them; we decided to run a small competition with all the stores giving them a limited budget. The brief was to be creative, to be different and to stand out. So all our stores got to work and have conjured up some show stopping displays and descriptions as to how they came up with their ideas are below- take a look and see what you think??

Lakeside store:
Our theme is Spring Awakening integrated with Mother’s Day.

The idea behind Spring Awakening was purely the fact that we received some truly inspirational coloured handbags and our new Carlton stock, in particular Deuce, fitted the bill.

Our window was transformed into a bee hive of activities. We recreated a scene from a life in a pond. Being spring, nature blooms. Plants and flowers come back to life, butterflies cradle out of their cocoons. The T-stands from the handbags act as plants that have just blossomed into flowers. We placed blue paper that represents water – water being a necessity for life of any kind. Brown Paper and pebbles representing the mud, gunk and earth; flowers represented by Lily pads; butterflies representing Nature and Handbags representing fruit jutting out of creepers and plants. Marbles represented the different shades of water at different times. Our new range Deuce – symbolises a strong tough (like the material father/son figure!)

At this point you are probably thinking what has this got to do with mother’s day. Well, spring is a season that acts as a mother to everything around us. Mother being the life bearer and all – spring being the nature’s nurturer thus acting as a mother of all.

Birmingham Bullring:
Carlton Blue is the Colour…
For our window display we decided to go with blue, white and purple as it is vibrant, eye-catching and ties in the mother's day theme with our companie’s colours. We covered the stands with purple crape paper because this gives the display a smarter look, more professional and attracts more attention than clear stands. As our windows are very tall in the Birmingham store we chose to add helium balloons to add some height to the display. As the display was to promote mothers’ day we thought that this would be a good opportunity to push a selection of handbags, and decided that our silver Eclipse 4 wheel cabin case would be an ideal centre piece. We used blue balloons to cover the floor and strategically place some of our gift sets and clutch bags and finished the look off by draping shredded coloured paper and sat a cute teddy bear on top of the eclipse case.

In contrast the second window display was kept classier. White see through fabric draped on the floor and our clear stands showing off our new Movida range. Pink ribbon was added, and tied into bows as a finishing touch, and roses were scattered across the cases and the floor to extenuate this further. I think as this window is not specifically a mothers day thing we will be keeping it for the next week as it is a feature that has been getting lots of attention.

Watford Harlequin Store:
Something for everyone
The main objectives of both window Displays was to attract a broad spectrum of age groups.
We decided to use red balloons to make the windows more eye-catching for the customers. We also wrapped some of our trolley cases and hand bags to show that they can be a great Mother's day present for this year and really entice the customers. The idea of having the banner with "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY" was to make customers aware of special deals of Mother's day. The key was to be imaginative and creative so we thought of unconventional ways to use different material in the store and stretch our budget so we decided to make shelves of spare units so customers can have a better view of our display and showcase our great offers!

Overall the ideas for all stores were very different and all made the most of their allocated budgets and came up with Fab displays. The chosen winner was the Lakeside store but I am sure you agree with me from the photos and descriptions there are no losers!

CARLTON’S ECLIPSE WOOS MISS BELGIUM '09

Look out Casanova, you have very stiff competition. After Laura Coleman, Miss England 08-09, it’s now Miss Belgium 09-10, Zeynep Sever’s turn to fall for the charms of the Carlton Eclipse.

Carlton is never one to shy from beauties, so much so that it has continued to take its place alongside the world’s most gorgeous ladies!

Carlton co-sponsored the 2009 Miss Belgium competition. The 12 lovely finalists bagged a divine Shiny Red Eclipse! The stunning winner Zeynep Sever became the proud owner of a set of Ferrari Red Mirror finished Eclipse – to accompany her to the Miss World finals!

Lucky lady!

We wish Zeynep “Good Luck” and “Bon Voyage” with Carlton!

SNEAK PREVIEW: COLLECTION 2009

A feature packed PP originally designed as a 4 Wheeler; Two iconic designs which are second to none; an uber-functional business range that re-defines Ambivalence; a Classic business range in Leather; a funky range which comes in colors so varied it will shame a butterfly; and five new Ranges in the Travel segment – that’s the list of offerings that Carlton has on its menu for the new year.

First couple of ranges' preview uploaded on their website. Click here for Magnum or here for Misha.
More details to follow very soon...

CARLTON’S New Thurrock Store

On Tuesday 2nd September 08, Miss England 2008 Laura Coleman opened the latest Carlton Mono Brand Store in Thurrock’s Lakeside Shopping Centre. It was a fabulous occasion with a many dropping by for a photo opportunity with Miss England and of course to see the new Carlton ranges.

Carlton’s new Thurrock store is the third stand-alone store to open in the UK, following the opening of Carlton’s Birmingham store in March 2008 and the Watford store in December 2007. The 70 sq. meters Thurrock store showcases all of Carlton’s latest luggage ranges in an impressive 6 meters glass frontage. The shop is located in the heart of West Thurrock’s retail paradise.

Carlton’s Country Sales Manager, Colin Lee, comments: “The launch of Carlton standalone stores creates the perfect environment for showcasing a wider range of Carlton products... Whether travelling for business or pleasure, today’s consumer requires luggage which says as much about their style as their clothing and other accessories. We feel Carlton is a luggage brand that is both practical and fashionable.”

The new Carlton store is situated on Level 2, opposite Debenhams, a prime location for Lakeside's discerning shoppers. So pop in and have a look.

Directions: By Car: The Lakeside Shopping Centre is clearly signposted from junctions 30 and 31 off the M25 or from A13. The A13, A1306 and West Thurrock Way also provide direct access to the centre. By Train: Chafford Hundred train station is linked to the Centre via a link bridge. C2C trains run to and from Fenchurch Street and Southend.

Level 2, Opposite Debenhams
Lakeside Shopping Center
West Thurrock, Grays, Essex, RM20 2ZP
Tel:Switchboard 01708 869933

http://www.carltontravelgoods.com/MediaRoom/MonoBrandStoreDetail.aspx?location=United%20Kingdom&StoreId=20

Miss England Travels with CARLTON

Carlton, the official luggage sponsor of Miss England 2008, presented the winners with a luxury three piece travel set. Over 50 young ladies took part in the spectacular show and contestants raised over £32,000 for the Institute of Cancer, Walk with Cancer appeal.

Miss England 2008, Laura Coleman, will be appearing for Carlton throughout the forthcoming year, firmly establishing Carlton as a fashionable, stylish and dependable brand. Laura Coleman, Miss England winner said: “The cases Carlton presented to me are perfect; the patent finish is very stylish – just right for my trip to the Miss World finals in South Africa.”

The three winners were each presented a set of Carlton’s stunningly designed Eclipse range, consisting of a small, medium and large trolley case – all in a patent red finish. The top 20 contestants also received a Carlton beauty case, the perfect travel accessory for any fashion conscious woman.

Carlton has a series of high profile sponsorship contracts planned for the forth coming year as part of it’s strategy to maintain its position of a leading luggage and travel accessory brand.

http://www.carltontravelgoods.com/MediaRoom/PressReleaseDetail.aspx?id=13

NOTES: Carton provides Miss England with the perfect travel companion for her journey to South Africa. Dependable, as the range is designed and crafted to be durable. Compatible, because whatever journey you are undertaking, the Carlton design team understands your needs and your style. Store your wet bikini, ensure your suit arrives without creases and your jewellery is properly concealed. Carlton’s designers have thought ahead for you. Trustworthy: Carlton has a 30 year heritage of providing the best luggage worldwide.

http://www.carltontravelgoods.com/index.asp