OUR STORY
who we are
behind the scenes
Bloomfield’s founders Carmen Long and Ashley McCracken have worked with many of the UK’s most respected retailers, fashion and lifestyle brands, environmental, heritage and cultural organisations, visitor attractions and charities.
Having first worked together over 20 years ago, we have always shared a similar outlook and values. Setting up our own business enables us to be guided by these same principles of transparency, innovation, thoughtfulness and ambition to produce the best work.
Working with environmentally conscious organisations and brands, we are well versed in ethical sourcing practices. The use of sustainable, recycled and reusable materials is front of mind in all we do.
We have travelled extensively to the Far East on sourcing trips to support and drive new business development, pro-actively finding and vetting new suppliers for a wide range of product types.
Developing brand strategies and managing licensing programmes has been a significant part of both of our careers, during which we have forged many long-term partnerships and successful retail collaborations.
Our business is supported by a highly flexible, established network of specialist product developers, designers, artists, UK suppliers and artisans, and an extensive range of larger scale, overseas manufacturers.
Bloomfield founders Carmen Long and Ashley McCracken
carmen long
founder | development & creative director
As Creative Director at Portico Designs, Carmen led the development of premium, design-led gifts, accessories, homewares, and outdoor living products for the wholesale division, heading up bespoke client product development across a wide range of retail and seasonal categories, in addition to managing key national accounts, brand acquisitions and licensing, instigating successful ongoing brand and retail partnerships.
While head of Product Development, she pro-actively sourced overseas suppliers to support expansion into new product categories, generating additional business growth; investigating new trends, materials, and techniques; ensuring that both cost and quality expectations were met, along with high ethical and environmental standards.
Having started out her career as a designer, Carmen has greatly enjoyed collaborating with a diverse range of inspirational cultural and ethical organisations, multiple retailers, fashion brands, artists, and brand owners.
Companies she has worked with include: The V&A, Eden Project, Waterstones, John Lewis & Partners, Royal Academy of Arts, Tate, The National Trust, Joules, Monsoon/Accessorize, Designers Guild, Oilily, Yurtel, The Royal Horticultural Society, Oxfam, Boots and Waitrose.
ashley mccracken
founder | product development consultant
Ashley has over 25 years’ diverse experience across a wide range of retail and wholesale sectors, including High Street, charity, luxury, heritage and online retail. Working on both sides of the industry sourcing and developing products in the UK, Europe and the Far East for large and small businesses and brands, has given her useful insight into the requirements of different markets.
Her experience includes buying and product development roles at Bloomsbury, WH Smith, Highgrove and consultancy roles for Fenwick, Tinc and gift wholesalers, including developing ranges for John Lewis.
client testimonials
some of the wonderful companies we are privileged to have worked with
Retail: Liberty London Fenwick Monsoon Accessorize Joules Tinc M&S Waterstones Fortnum & Mason Paperchase WHSmith Sainsbury’s Boots Oxfam UO Laura Ashley John Lewis & Partners Waitrose
Heritage & Arts: V&A The British Museum Tate The Wallace Collection Fitzwilliam Museum Royal Academy of Arts Manchester City Art Galleries Oxford University Collection The National Gallery
Visitor Attractions: Natural History Museum Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew National Trust Highgrove ZHL London Zoo Royal Horticultural Society Royal Botanic Gardens Historic Royal Palaces English Heritage
Brand Partnerships: Eden Project V&A Wedgewood Burleigh Pottery Oilily GBBO Zodiak Rights Designers Guild Walker Books ITV BBC Worldwide Virago Ethical Goods Harper Collins Penguin Books
Aardman Animations Random House Caroline Gardner Disney Marvel Unilever IMG Cadbury 20th Century Fox Joules Barbara Hulanicki Dahl Estate
