End of Year Letter 2021

Dear colleagues,

Well, what a year 2021 has been! Much like 2020, it has been an unprecedented year of events. Although we have experienced a lot of uncertainty, we have also experienced an opportunity for reflection, restoration, and resilience.

2021

Despite all the trials and tribulations throughout the year, Phoenix has kept going and become stronger!

Operating through the pandemic has not been easy for any of us. We made a commitment to the industry to continue to operate. Our team has worked with organisations to comply with safety guidelines and regulations to ensure practitioners were able to continue practising.

The pandemic has seriously damaged the whole supply chain, as sourcing and manufacturing the best quality products became more challenging and costly, even more so as the international demand and logistics cost continued to rise to a new high. However, we believe it is our duty to support practitioners to help people who need relevant treatments, therefore we made the decision to keep the price of our wholesale products unchanged throughout 2021. We work tirelessly to maintain prices but due to unavoidable factors, there may be some price adjustments.

Another obstacle we had to overcome in 2021 was Brexit! We supply to over 32 countries across Europe, so the new Brexit rules hit us and our customers hard. However, after nearly a year of new rules and regulations, our operations are now seamless. We would like to thank our international customers for their understanding and patience during this time. We are fully compliant with the protocols and have implemented new operating procedures to adhere to new regulations.

As part of our dedication to TCM, we were awarded the British Herbal Medicine Association’ Herb Mark in 2021 – an accomplishment of which we are extremely proud. We took the BHMA’s Good Herbal Manufacture and Supply Standard assessment and successfully passed! The completion of the audit puts Phoenix in the leading position in the industry. The collective Herb Mark ensures that practitioners are aware that the products they are using are of the highest quality and produced/prepared safely. The Herb Mark will be added to our new sustainable packaging in 2022 so be sure to keep an eye out for updates!

We upgraded our website at the beginning of 2021 and throughout the year have developed it further to optimise customer experience and ease of use. We have implemented an advanced search tool to help customers filter through our products, as well as video tutorials for specific products including our TDP Heat Lamp. We plan to introduce further product videos in the coming year to make our website more interactive.

Throughout 2021, we invested a lot of resources to enhance our education platform, Phoenix Academy of Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine and we even celebrated the completion and graduation of the first cohort of the Virtual Chinese Herbal Medicine diploma. Our education team hosted a number of successful courses online, including the Commonly Used Formula CPD course and informative, free webinars of topics related to Covid and our Aura Herbal Dietary Supplements.

Since the beginning of Phoenix, we have always supported charity projects and we continued to do so throughout 2021. We have been working with Animals Asia since 2018 to support the efforts to end bear bile farming in China and Vietnam. A percentage of all wholesale orders are donated to the charity so we would like to thank you all for supporting such an important cause. Furthermore, we have also supported projects closer to home. This year we donated a number of supplies to volunteer acupuncture projects, NADA relief projects and student packs.

As well as continuing to expand Phoenix, this year we have gained five new team members – Tommy, Josh, Antony, Bibin and Clay. We will be recruiting more talent into the company in the coming years to ensure you receive the best customer experience – from website navigation to over-the-phone service. Keep an eye out for some new faces!

2022

With a new year, comes new opportunities and we have even bigger plans for 2022!

We have been working with our factories and manufacturers to develop and launch new product ranges, including our new DaoDi Culinary Herbs. The range covers many popular culinary herbs and formulas, cultivated using traditional DaoDi methods but grown to maximize flavour and authenticity. The aim of the range is to make Chinese herbs more accessible by easily incorporating them into everyday life. The range will be available to purchase from January 2022.

Furthermore, we have been working on our environmentally friendly mission for many years. In 2022, we will be launching our new and improved granule packaging which we are extremely excited about! The new bottles are not only recyclable but also use 25% less plastic which will save tons of plastic.

As always, research and innovation are a key part of Phoenix. In the coming year, we will continue to support the ongoing clinical trial project with our partners at the University of Southampton and the NHS and we hope to have further updates in 2022. As well as supporting ongoing projects, we also welcome any research opportunities within our industry. If you have a project that needs support, please contact us.

Our commitment to classical Chinese medicine education is only going to further in the coming years as we have great plans to further consolidate TCM education within the West. To make learning even more accessible, we will be offering an extensive syllabus of teachings, online and offline. With the addition of in-person teaching, we hope this allows us to not only attend, but host live in-person events in 2022.

We would like to take the opportunity to thank you for working with us. Everything we have done together has helped to provide better care to people in need. Now, more than ever, it is a pivotal time to highlight how important Chinese medicine is!

We very much look forward to 2022 and we are hopeful for a bright future for all within the industry.

We would like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas, and a healthy and Happy New Year!

With warmest wishes,

George and the Phoenix Team.