.. and while I was in Los Angeles, I visited a number of prominent sportswear distributors and suppliers and I gave several presentations of our latest products. There was/has been a great deal of interest shown by American buyers in our new line of BUSTOP sports shirts and track suits. They all commented on our colour schemes and summer designs, and said that they had never seen a design with such a positive impact. I think that BUSTOP is going to be/will be a winner for us both sides of the Atlantic.

The day before I flew back I met the owners of Track Style and Winners, our regular retail outlets in L.A, and I informed them of our new discount plan on orders over $5,000. They seemed very interested, but both clients mentioned our late delivery dates, and I know that’s something our export department has been working on recently. Anyway, erm…Halloways promised/has promised an order in excess of $15,000, but I haven’t received the order yet.

Sammy Cohen of Marks Brothers sends his regards. You may remember he came over last December and we had lunch together. He has had/has been having some bad luck lately. He closed/has closed his two main outlets in the centre and at the moment he is selling from the five smaller stores in the suburbs. He has offered to be a sales rep for us over there. I don’t know what you think, but he certainly has some very useful connections in the L.A. fashion business, and he could bring in some lucrative new business for us.

Before I move on to talk about the East Coast, I’d just like to say how prominent our brand is in the west of the States. Our TV and radio campaign for BUSTOP has helped/has been helping our brand image enormously since we launched it last April, and I’m confident that third quarter sales on the West Coast will be/is going to be at least 18% up on last years figures.