WHERE WE HAVE COME FROM AND WHERE ARE WE GOING …
After living and working in Africa, Chris and Kel decided to bring a little bit of Kenya here to the west Midlands.
The beginning of the road
We opened our first business in 2002. It was in a leafy suburb of Birmingham and the ideal platform to show off our exotic art from darkest Africa.
The BIG move
In 2005 the opportunity arose for us to move to our present site in Solihull. Now we have the chance to showcase art from every continent in Africa, spread across two acres both indoors and outdoors. We have a fantastic restaurant, delicious Kenyan tea and coffee, over 100 different types of rum on our bar and a Kenyan classic “ Tusker Beer.”
A new workshop
In 2007 we moved to our new studio and workshop in Karen Nairobi. The new workshop caters to all of our artists needs and is well equipped to deal with the increased demand for both our wholesale and retail business. With the office round the corner on the National park the artists have all they could ever need, including real life Giraffe models to work from.
A bright future
Ten years on we have a fantastic thriving business. We have art from all over Africa, possibly on of the best collections in the UK, from Tribal art, metal art, Shona stone art and beautiful carved wooden art. We have a wonderful wholesale business supplying many garden centres, theme parks and zoos.
The animals came in two by two
With both retail and wholesale orders flooding in our work schedule had to double up. More space and more artists were needed, our Kenyan team are now partnered with a Zimbabwean team, producing double the amount of work without any compromise on quality and finish. We now have two containers landing at the same time – two by two.