Cotton Patch on the BBC

As you may be aware the Royal Mail employees (members of the CWU) are staging two 48-hour strikes which began yesterday. It is having an impact on our ability to get parcels out to you, our customers. Our 2007/8 catalogue is printed but can't be mailed out. However, you can still go to our website and you can download a copy as well as placing an order online.

This kind of situation can have potentially devastating effects on a small business like ours. We had the opportunity of highlighting this on the BBC2 program Working Lunch yesterday.

Liz Sewell was interviewed by Simon Gompertz on how the alternative mail delivery providers are not a full substitute for Royal Mail as even if we sent out the catalogue using an alternative the final delivery is still done by Royal Mail. To see the program you can view it at the following link

We are offering the following to our customers whilst the strike is in progress:

1) If you are close enough to visit please come and see us! The first five customers every day will get an attractive notepad and pencil with magnet (no purchase necessary) for putting on your fridge - always handy to have! Please quote "early bird" when you visit.

2) If you place an order online and would like to pick it up from the shop customers will be offered a free gift from a large selection of patchwork and quilting related items when they pick their order up - you choose the one you would like - most are worth over £5 in value.

To do so:

On your checkout specify The Cotton Patch as your delivery to address, the date of your visit as the second line and complete our address and postcode (B28 9AJ). We will have your order ready for you - please allow at least a day for your order to be prepared (This is subject to stock being available).

3) For those customers who can't visit we can offer a flat-rate £8.50 next day courier delivery instead of our usual Priority Service. This is subject to some product and location restrictions but most products and destinations are covered. This will be up on the website as an option when you select your postal delivery method. We require a signature on delivery for this method so please specify a different delivery address (such as your work address) if you are normally out during the day.

Thank you for your patience - we hope that the dispute gets resolved quickly and that normal service will be resumed soon.