I took a trip around a sun drenched Edinburgh today, spending time in all four Paper Tiger shops, checking in on preparations for the month ahead. The Festival, Fringe and the Edinburgh Military Tattoo all start on Friday. We also have the Foodies Festival on our new doorstep in Stockbridge. The autumn school term starts in two weeks time in Edinburgh, so we're sharpening our pencils on the Back To School displays.

It takes a lot of effort to maintain consistency across four shops, and keep the momentum going across different postcodes and customer profiles. I am very fortunate to have a team of people working in Paper Tiger who bring talent, knowledge, experience, diligence, flair, style, humour, skill, patience, and an appetite to do better work.

It has been lovely seeing the customer reaction in the new Stockbridge shop, hearing positive comments, and enjoying the congratulations from so many different people. Those well wishes and admiring comments are a result of a great deal of effort from the whole team at Paper Tiger. At the beginning of July, in the depths of shop fitting work, I wrote 'MAINTAIN MOMENTUM' in my diary, because I was worried that Stockbridge would be a distraction for the team.

The team have been able to maintain the momentum. Stockbridge has opened successfully, and the other three shops have had their best July ever.

My tigers are the best Tigers. 🐯