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For those of you just reading this two days ago we were given just two weeks to vacate our Dr Zigs Bubble Factory.. This is my diary. I’m also posting video diaries to tiktok if you would like to follow) To all of you who keep up the sharing and the support - feel yourself virtually hugged. The biggest warmest of bear hugs. From me to you with love. It is important businesses take action so they can continue the flow of people, data, goods and services between the UK and the EU. All our Wands are made of FSC certified wood - which means that it has been sustainably sourced (Very cool!) - and all our Bubble Ropes are made of 100% natural untreated cotton (Increadibubble!). We produce our own Dr Zigs Bubble Mix in the valleys of Snowdonia (North Wales) to a secret recipe containing 97% of distilled Welsh sea water with a little bit of added love, magic, and a trace of Welsh dragon essence. Our mixes are guaranteed phosphate and palm oil free and we work hard to reduce surfactants (not so good for the environment) whilst increasing performance. This product has passed all the CE and EN71 an UKCA toy safety testing. CE certified. Product code Now, I feel like we face new territory. Like I have scaled a mountain as high as Everest. Pushing a boulder up a hill, with moments thinking I would let go, that it would overtake me, crush me. Yet, suddenly I am here. At the summit. And the world I see ahead of me is beautiful and full, so full of possibility.

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The best bit of our work at Dr Zigs is sharing our love for Bubbles with all of you. Creating toys to spread laughter and joy, and with our Bubbles doing our best to make the world a better place. The toy industry, emerging as if blinking in the bright lights after the years of Corona/ Covid. Slightly cautious still, but with biggest smiles and sharing huge bear hugs. The word I heard most often from old and new friends, finally solid to the touch was ‘emotional’. And yes, that is the memory and the word I will take - it has been awesome, busy, so very busy, and just filled to the brim with emotion.

DON’T RISK DISAPPOINTING BUBBLES. While others promise magic but don’t deliver, Dr Zigs’ are experts in producing the biggest, long-lasting bubbles every time, to make sure your special celebration goes with a …pop! See our pictures or search for us on social media to see just how amazing our giant bubbles really are.And it’s about love in every aspect of what we do. Love for the process, the manufacturing, the bringing together of components and ingredients, it’s about love in the sourcing and the people involved, it’s about the hand-making of our cotton ropes, the community farmers who grow and harvest and process our bamboo, for the printers we work with, the chemists, the designers, and even (definitely) love for the tech support :D And to those of you at the Toy Fair - see you in New York! We’re on the Spielwarenmesse World of Toys pavilion, Level 3 booth 1882 From myself, Paola, from Ziggy the boss, and from all the team - we would love to wish you the happiest healthiest and Bubbliest New Year x It’s about the so very many of our customers who buy our Bubbles to gift, to pass on, to share. Because every single one of our Bubbles is filled with love, and every single kit is filled with at least a thousand Bubbles, and for this year alone, for the number of bottles of Dr Zigs we sold, there were approximately 20 MILLION Bubbles in the world. And if each one of these Bubbles is soooo filled with love, that’s a mighty lot of love that is now in the air. Yet, all the companies that we acquired at that show are all still our customers and going strong, still partners intent on introducing sustainable toys to their customers, and all of these are companies that are growing. And more and more customers are asking us about this (oh and the fact that our Bubble Toys are simply incredible quality and size and colour of course :D )

WHY WE'RE THE BEST? We’re much more eco-friendly than other makes as our non-toxic bubble mix is fully biodegradable and contains no phosphates so it’s better for the environment and for children! Fanciful, and it could simply be that a larger mountain range lies ahead. But knowing that I have done this, got this far, feels like winning a gold medal. And I want to take this moment to cherish this. And celebrate. In the best way I know how. With some HUGE giant Bubbles and a trip to the sea. Dr Zigs’ bubble factory is based in Bangor and it proudly manufactures all of its products in Wales and uses naturally sourced materials wherever possible. However, Europe is also a big part of the business, so Paola has been busy preparing for the UK transition.It is an honour to be a part of this world of toys. It IS emotional. And after the years we’ve had it’s been like coming home. If you have followed our journey over the last 13 years - from my kitchen table and three kids in tow, to market stalls, to pop-ups, to garden shed, to large scale festivals, to retail, to factory, to eviction, to rehoming, to further growth, and finally to today, and to outsourcing, you will know what a ride it’s been. We have launched a crowdfunding campaign to buy ventilators and equipment to help support our crucial Health Care staff in these very difficult times. I have started viewing the most realistic potential spaces, each one so far ‘nearly’ possible, each with its own challenges - financial, size, location. So many things to take into consideration. I want to do this move one time, it has to be right. Suddenly I’m having to make strategic decisions about business growth and direction condensed into blips of time. Things that I had planned in months and years ahead suddenly need to be front and centre to guide our next move.

And for 2023, the year ahead we are planning big, and I can’t wait to share this new journey with you, and I’m excited for all of you to be a part of it too - but for now, a few beautiful Bubbly memories - the best of times, the best of 2022. Three years ago we knew nothing of what the pandemic had in store for us, three years ago our sustainability message was still getting faint interest.

brandvalues #dayoflove #drzigs #toyindustry #ethicalbrand #sustainabletoys #sustainability #bethechange #lovemyjob #community #manufacturing #sourcing You can have so much fun with bubbles at home, but you really need a good bubble mixture like Dr Zigs. If you wet your hands, or a straw, in the bubble mixture, the bubbles WON’T BURST when they are touched by the wet things! So you can catch bubbles, wobble them about, you can use a wet straw to blow a bubble INSIDE a bubble! And you can blow bubbles just using your hands! I am going to do a video to show you how to do it. I am SO looking forward to meeting up with ALL of you wonderful friends and toy industry peeps over the next couple of weeks! And more than anything I'm looking forward to awesome buyers coming to find us :D Since I’ve written this the terrible earthquake in Turkey and Syria has hit. For years we have worked in the camps in Syria, and in Turkey we have wonderful colleagues. Our heart goes out to those affected in both countries. We will be reaching out and supporting as we can. A year in the life of Dr Zigs , looking at our ambitions and dreams, how these have played out, and of course the challenges too and the utterly unexpected.