The Dukes of Sandwich first grew legs in Christchurch. While the Dukes’ home is now in Welly, the duo behind the scene – Laura and Rob – have their eyes set on returning to the great (sandwich-hungry) people of Christchurch for the Buskers Festival in January 2018.
Why do you think this campaign is important?
Christchurch has been through some rough times in recent years. We had reason to move to Christchurch for an organic horticulture course but when the earthquakes happened we definitely thought twice. We decided that it would be an exciting transitional time for the city and came anyway. We watched as so much of what was left was taken down around us over the next few years
It was a low time for a lot of people. Yet we started to see new life, ideas and business ventures pop up in the cracks left behind by the quakes. These early start-ups were instigated by people who often had more passion than money, not your typical business owner, who never would have gotten the opportunity in other circumstances.
The Dukes of Sandwich was one of these start-ups. The idea behind Dukes and others like it succeeded because of the love and support of from various organisations, a growing new entrepreneurial community and the population of Christchurch.
This campaign is important because it is a thank you tour to all our friends, supporters, suppliers, and sandwich appreciators in Christchurch who helped make the Dukes of Sandwich what it is today.
What motivated you to reach out to your crowd?
The people of Christchurch kept asking if we would come back and letting us know they miss us. We thought that was pretty sweet but never seriously considered it. After all, it would be a pretty high cost to move it! When we discovered how crowdfunding actually works we realised we could negate the risk of the venture by pre-selling our pretty cool goodies. Suddenly this crazy idea to return to Christchurch didn’t seem so crazy after all – thanks to the support of our crowd.
What do you have planned for the rest of the campaign – anything for us to look forward to?
Keep an eye out because we have a couple of new rewards in the works. To let you in on the secret, one is Rob’s “behind the scenes” hot sauce. It’s that sauce in the recycled bottle with no label that you get if you want to add a bit of spice to your sammie!
Anything you would like to shout out to your crowd?
As one of our pledgers commented, “think of it as an investment as opposed to a donation. You don’t just get something for the money you pledge, you get the guarantee that you will actually get that sandwich with all that Dukes goodness.”
We also want to shout out to all the pledgers so far… I believe we can do this! We need you to help spread the word so keep on sharing it around
One final thing: this campaign is not just for the Christchurch folk. Our Welly region supporters have made us so welcome. We would love you to continue that support and pledge on this campaign (and of course the same rewards apply!).
Finally, thanks to everyone who’s had one of our sandwiches – and especially the ones who come back to tell us how they felt about it. That’s really important to us!
To get a taste of what Duke’s is all about, check out their campaign here.
