Two mums have been plunged into the hard-nosed world of manufacturing after creating a business producing their own funky music bags. They tell Ruth Campbell about the lightbulb moment that started it all off

SCOURING the internet for attractive looking music bags that their fashion-conscious children might be happy to be seen in public with was an exasperating experience for busy mums Sarah D’Arcy and Anna Banks.

“There were just cheap, slightly tacky nylon book bags for sheet music at one end and the take-out-a-mortgage-to-buy-them leather ones at the other,” says Anna.

They wanted good quality and design. Their children wanted something fun and funky.

That was when they had a “lightbulb” moment.

Anna, 46, who studied singing and piano at the Royal College of Music, felt particularly passionate about her children being made to feel like “nerds” just because they played instruments.

“Music has got a really old-fashioned image,”

she says. “You can’t buy anything fun and nice that a 12-year-old boy might want to carry around. It is wrong to assume that every child who plays a musical instrument is happy to be naff, that they don’t care. They do.”

The pair decided they would produce their own cool and quirky practical bags to fill the obvious gap in the market. And so, over a cup of coffee at the kitchen table, their Music Tree Company was born.

The friends, who first met at school in Essex more than 30 years ago, and bumped into each other again unexpectedly after relocating to North Yorkshire, had always shared a love of music.

Anna’s three children and Sarah’s two, aged from 11 to 17, play a range of instruments including clarinet, trumpet, drums, flute, piano and guitar and piano. “It turns out our kids are all music nuts too,” says Sarah, 48.

Both Sarah and Anna love vintage prints and found a local designer who could create the sort of eye-catching retro patterns they wanted.

The designs were tested on their children and their friends, who inspired Anna to add a clear pouch to hold music theory crib cards.

They also developed matching recorder bags and music notebooks.

“Sometimes we heard things we didn’t want to hear,” says Anna. “The children would pick up on things they didn’t like, certain colours or a detail in a drawing. They were involved in every stage of the product design. It took a bit of tweaking.”

The results – good quality bags made from hard-wearing and practical wipe-clean matt fabric, with witty, colourful designs featuring British bulldogs, motorbikes, Union Jacks and sunflowers – have taken the market by storm.

Sarah and Anna initially ordered 500 bags to launch their company in October this year.

But demand, from as far as Scotland, London, Wales and Sussex, was so overwhelming, they quickly sold out and had to order more. “We are a tiny little business just starting out, so the sales surprised us,” says Anna Sarah, a learning support teaching assistant, and Anna, who used to work as a music teacher, were suddenly thrown into a very different world of meetings with textile manufacturers and site visits to the factory shop floor. It was a baptism of fire. “We’ve both worked with children in gentle environments, we’ve never had these sort of jobs before. We have had to prove ourselves,” says Anna.

The manufacturers they met didn’t take them too seriously at first. “They said they thought they’d never see us again,” says Anna.

“They had assumptions about us, and we probably had assumptions about them. But we have worked through all these slight prejudices and now have great respect for one another. We have become a bit more hard-nosed. They take us seriously now.”

The women sourced every component of their products, from buttons to lining and handles and took particular care to ensure they got the perfect cloth, with a precise weight and finish.

“We worked long days, trailing around endless manufacturers, driving to places like Bradford, Rochdale and Macclesfield. We were determined all our products would be designed and made in Britain,” says Anna.

Their worst moments were when people let them down. “We were naive. In our world, as mums, you don’t let one another down. If you say you’re going to pick up someone’s child, you do it.

“But in this world, we now know we have to nail suppliers, manufacturers and delivery companies down. We double and triple-check everything and make sure they understand what our deadlines are. This is a very different world and we have certainly had to find another side of ourselves.”

But they also play to the strengths and skills they have built up raising a family. “As mums, we appreciate the value of personal contact. We have been and met every one of our suppliers. We drive to Lancashire where our fabric is printed, regularly.

We know everyone we deal with on a face-toface basis,” says Anna.

“As busy mums, we don’t faff about. We don’t have time, we just have to get on with it.”

Having invested their own money, they are working on a tight budget, juggling order and delivery deadlines with the demands of family life. “We often end up fielding calls while dishing up tea and have some very late nights working at the computer,” says Sarah They have also had to get to grips with twitter, Facebook, blogs and all the other promotional tools that go hand-in-hand with running a modern business.

They still find it hard to believe what they have achieved. “So many women have said to us ‘I wish I was doing what you are doing’. They have had ideas but never taken it any further.”

SARAH points out that dislocating her finger and being unable to drive, probably helped. “When we had this idea, over a cup of coffee, I was feeling really frustrated because, for weeks, I couldn’t get out and do anything. But sometimes it takes something like that to slow you down and think about what you are doing with your life.”

They chose a picture of the old Cedar Tree which sits in the grounds of their old school as their company logo, reflecting the lifelong friendship that binds them together. It is their shared love of music, nourished at New Hall School, along with a passion for their product, which underlines everything they do.

“We really do believe that we should all try to encourage children’s interest in music. It is a fundamental part of their development. Music brings people together and it is a wonderful thing to sing in a choir, play an instrument or share music with friends,” says Anna.

“It also reinforces an important lesson, that practising and working at something brings rewards.

Sometimes children moan and want to give up, but they soon realise if they work at it they get there. That transfers to everything in life.

“If just one child looks at our music bags and says ‘I want to learn piano so Mum will buy me one of those bags’, that would be a great achievement.”

  • The Music Company, The Old Hall, Main Street, Helperby, York YO61 2PS. Tel: 01423- 360066/07890-72820. themusictreecompany.com. Email: enquiries@themusictreecompany.com