For an amazing 20 years, from 2002 until 2022, Mugs&Gifts served clients around the world with personalised products.
With the byline “Personalise Your Life!”, we sought to create tighter bonds between the client, the product, and us. Our desire was always to deliver a personalised one-to-one service without the usual high price associated with such a service.
We kept our prices low, maintained only a slim profit margin, and absorbed material cost increases whenever we could. We did our best to put the customer first.
For a time we achieved our goals, although keeping our prices low meant that the journey was a long and slow one. With tiny profit margins to work with, we were hit hard by the recession of 2008 and, by the time we came out of it, the marketplace had changed.
A rise in “supermarket personalised products” spoke to a need by customers for a “cheap and convenient” product, which left little space for our “quality product and personalised service” goal. Mugs&Gifts struggled against the market saturation of the convenience factor. Less clients sought our unique service, instead finding their needs met by ‘big name’ companies who don’t know the names of their clients.
Thanks to our parent business, 1st4computing, Mugs&Gifts was able to continue in a smaller way. Serving the needs of our returning clients, whilst subsidising the business during lean times. Ultimately all clients found their requirements met elsewhere, and Mugs&Gifts became a bit of a ghost town.
Following the difficulties during the COVID years, and the aftermath, Mugs&Gifts became unsustainable. It couldn’t be subsidised by 1st4computing any longer and, with much regret from everyone involved, our doors closed for the final time in mid-2022.
The domain name and emails are maintained for enquiries from previous clients. Although we do still have some old supplies and equipment in storage, Mugs&Gifts is no longer able to fulfill printing orders.
Our thanks go to everyone who enjoyed our service over the years. It was a fun, but ultimately exhausting, ride.