Come on an Adventure with Gandys Flip Flops

Miranda Birch, one of the Summit's creators and owner of Miranda Birch Media had a chat with Gandys founder, Rob Forkan last week. Below she gives some insight into the British born social enterprise, just a two man band a couple of years ago and now with a presence worldwide and a seven figure turnover.

Remember those exciting, perhaps nerve-racking, entrepreneurial ‘firsts’?

Your first pitch?  Your first networking event?  Your first employee?

Remember the thoughts before you embarked on those ‘firsts?’   Perhaps they went along the lines of “How do I do this? How do I do that?”

That’s the sort of thing Rob Forkan was saying to himself and to his brother Paul, as they embarked on their vision to create a big flip flop brand, Gandys.

To make it happen they had to find out about suppliers, design, distribution, copyright, branding, pitching, websites, PR... Lots of ‘firsts’, all done in the space of a couple of years and largely by themselves.

Because whether you run, or are part of, an organisation, the world of entrepreneurial work is one hell of an adventure. You can prepare and plan up to a certain point but you can’t predict everything.  So you end up learning a lot.
As they took their first publicity shots on their mobile phones in their bathroom, neither Rob nor Paul could have predicted the scale of Gandys’ success.

“From day one we went around telling people that we were going to be a big flip flop brand. Right from day one. Everyone laughed at us. Well, not everyone, but a lot of people did.”

It’s not yet reached its third birthday, but the laughing has stopped.  Gandys is a social enterprise with a seven figure turnover and a presence in 20+ countries.  Australia is next. The brothers are due to launch Gandys in two of that country’s biggest department stores in September.

Rob and Paul created Gandys Flip Flops as a tribute to their parents. Kevin and Sandra had given their young family a taste for adventure by taking them to India to do voluntary work. Tragically, the family was caught up in the 2004 Tsunami and Kevin and Sandra died. The brothers wanted to create something to honour their parents’ values. And so Gandys – “two brothers  helping fellow orphans” was born. 10% of all Gandys’ profits go directly to the Gandys Foundation, which supports children in need of the basic essentials – food, medicine, a roof over their heads.  The long term goal is to open children’s homes on every continent. You can find out more about the work of the Foundation here.

So, the last thirty months have been, as the Brighton Summit would put it, ‘one hell of an adventure’.   

“We have had to learn a ridiculous amount. Three years ago I was just sat there, thinking “How the hell do you do this? How do you do that? How does this work? How does that work?” I’ve a friend I used to go to school with.  He’s got a friend who’s just set up a fashion brand.   Anyway, he came in and sat down and I was just reeling off stuff about what we had done, “Use these guys for this!” “Use those guys for that!” I just take it for granted now. It’s programmed in. We’ve been working days, nights, seven days a week and we have learned so much.”

The brothers’ giddy learning curve really does span every aspect of entrepreneurialism,  from finding the right suppliers for rubber (China v Brazil) and honing their pitching skills (dress code casual, with flip-flops, of course) to sorting out trademark  issues and working with distributors across a myriad of time zones.

You’ll be able to hear Rob Forkan’s story when it kicks off The Brighton Summit: Come on an Adventure on July 4th. It’s a day of inspirational speakers, thought-provoking workshops and friendly networking. Wherever you work, whatever stage you’re at - starting out, growing or thinking about successors - it’s a great day to get insights and learning on how to move forward in your own journey.

So, if you’ve ever experienced those ‘adventure’ feelings of not knowing what will happen next and wondering whether you have the wherewithal to tackle whatever comes next, join us on Friday 4th July.

When you look back, you might be amazed to see how far you’ve come and the ‘ridiculous amount’ you have picked up along the way.  And you’ll be really rather glad you did it, after all.

BOOK YOUR TICKETS HERE

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk