We had a brief chat with Salix at the Lords show after about 18 months of flirting with the idea of stocking them - ever since Andrew Kember called me personally to discuss a potential deal. After the show they said they would send a rep to come and see us to discuss the range and talk about arranging an agreement to stock Salix.
In the end Andrew and Vicky elected to visit us themselves yesterday, which was a very nice touch, and definitely appreciated. They were here for approx 3 hours and we discussed all things cricket at length, not just the Salix gear. At one point Andrew Kember was giving me some throwdowns whilst I used one of the most beautiful bats I have ever seen, a stunning SLX Finite. It was surreal to have one of the best bat-makers in the world casually lobbing balls in my direction whilst i used one of his high quality and sought after creations.
We are very excited to announce we will be stocking Salix (and probably HitsHard too) very soon. We plan to visit to select our bats in the coming weeks, as always I am excited to view another cricket bat making facility, to be frank it is probably one of the main reasons that i like to go handpicking, obviously selecting bats myself for customers is a nice thing to do but the feeling of being in a special place that very few people get to see is something I love. I am sure everyone on the forum is aware of the levels of quality offered by Salix, so i don't need to stress too much just how impressive their knowledge/passion was. It was great to hear Andrew talk about all the processes they go through to take the wood from raw form to be the best bat it can be. It makes me even more excited to visit!
We plan to stock a smallish number of bats to begin with, and probably some softs too. With the idea of testing the waters over the coming months, and building brand awareness/loyalty locally over time. There are few stockists of cricket bats anywhere near us, and none at all who carry Salix so there is a geographical gap in the market which needs to change. If anyone would like to pre-order a Salix product from us to help boost our initial order then that of course would be most welcome! Please get in contact for a price. As a little offer to the forum i will knock in any Salix bat pre-ordered from us before the start of November for free. As well as that we will give you a 15ml tub of the famous Salix bat wax.
Salix are celebrating their 25th year with the 2015 range, and we are very proud to be on board.