This page features examples of published work where I interviewed individuals for various business magazines. Some are business leaders, others designers and retailers, some celebrities. Just click on the link (the words in blue) in each case, to read the PDF.

There is some overlap with my page of published work about design, since many of those articles are themselves interviews with individual designers, so please do visit that page also.

* This is an interview with designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, about his approach to the design of homewares products. laurence llewelyn bowen interview

* Here is an interview with Nick Munro, the British designer, discussing his use of the colour black in glass products. nick munro interview

* Here is an interview with actress Jane Asher, talking about her new line of kitchenware products. jane asher interview

* Artist Jack Vettriano talks in this one about launching a greeting card company to publish his and other artists’ work. I had only about 15 minutes with Vettriano at a trade show but he talked enough to give me twice the amount of copy. jack vettriano interview

* In this one I talked to chef Gary Rhodes about a new range of products he had put his name to. gary rhodes interview

* This is an interview with the then chief executive of Wedgwood about his business strategy. tony o’reilly interview

* This is an interview with the then chief executive of Royal Doulton, about his plans for the company. wayne nutbeen interview

* This link takes you to an interview with the founder of a business making products for the children’s market. business profile, progressive party

Below are a couple of articles in text form – will be available as PDFs from the magazine pages when I get round to scanning them. 

An interview with the owners of London store lifestyle store Skandium

Published in Canadian magazine Retail News Canada

Imagine having to close your flagship city centre store because the landlords had imposed unacceptable new rent conditions, then having to carry out a costly refit of your new premises, and then having to have the street closed to traffic so the unwieldly 10m-long floorboards for the new store could be got off the truck and through the door!

It’s a scenario that the owners of London’s leading Scandinavian lifestyle store, Skandium, have recently had to cope with. It was, as marketing director Chrystina Schmidt put it, “rather exciting”!

Skandium had been at its present site, a stone’s throw from London’s major shopping area, Oxford Street, since it was set up in September 1999. But the high cost of renewing the lease made the owners decide to move to new premises not far away and, after a total refurbishment, the store was due to open on May 4.

Chrystina says the task of opening on time and within budget was a huge challenge and one that involved long hours and lots of planning, but she says the result, thanks to shop designers Lewis-Granaiola and contractor Cheshire Contract, is “fabulous”.

At 400m2, the new store is double the size of the existing one and will enable the business to stock a far wider range of product.

There will be glass from Swedish glass works Orrefors and Kosta Boda; and tabletop from Boda Nova, Eva, Menu, Rosendahl and Stelton. Skandium will also offer furniture, fabrics, wallpaper, fitted kitchens, lighting and jewellery, all from Scandinavian designers.

And the new store will feature shops-in-shop for houseware brand Iittala and the blind, rug and furniture supplier Woodnotes.

The Skandium story started after Chrystina, a photographer from Finland, and Magnus Englund, her partner, a fashion retailer from Sweden, moved to London and spotted a niche for a store selling design classics and contemporary items.

Scandinavian products, says Chrystina, have an allure that comes from their social and historical context. “Functionalism and simplicity was used to improve the welfare of the people. They are well made and ergonomically sound yet beautiful, witty and colourful.”

Magnus and Chrystina went into partnership with Christopher Seidenfaden, a Dane. Their aim was to offer a complete lifestyle presentation retailing furniture, lighting, glassware, ceramics, textiles, kitchenware, books and magazines.

Money was tight, says Chrystina, so “we improvised and did it on a low budget. Our target customers were people who would be used to high standards in all aspects of their lives and we were terribly nervous about whether people would accept a low-budget shop with high-profile design classics.”

Their inspiration was Paul Smith, the fashion designer. “His clothes have quirkiness and personality, and his merchandising is entertaining and accessible. We wanted the same accessibility. We mix merchandise in a way that’s pleasing to the eye, such as magazines and sweets with china and glass design classics, kitchenware with toys and lighting.”

There is a strong visual and conceptual resemblance to Ikea but Skandium’s prices are at the high end. The store’s strength, says Chrystina, is that its merchandise has a story to tell. “They are made by a certain designer or created for a certain project, so the products are not anonymous.”

While Skandium features contemporary products alongside design classics, “we don’t do fashion”. Best-sellers include items that were designed decades ago, such as the Alvar Aalto vases.

After getting established as a retailer (and finding it had, and still has, little direct competition) Skandium expanded into contract work and interior design services and has launched a wedding list service.

It has also opened shops-in-shops in the department store Selfridges in London, Manchester and Birmingham. As UK agent for the Finnish textile brand Marimekko it also operates a standalone Marimekko shop.

Skandium employs 30 staff and Chrystina says the ideal employee is someone “well-presented and well-spoken, who’s willing to muck in and can keep calm when five things are happening at once”. They also need to be able to build up a rapport with customers. “Good retailing is not just selling. The sale comes out of a relationship with the customer.”

Chrystina’s attitude to customer service is that: “If anything goes wrong we try to resolve it, but I don’t believe that the customer is necessarily always king.”

Chrystina cites the case of a customer who took two years to collect a customised rug for which she’d paid a non-refundable deposit (the shop staff had tried for a year to contact her), and was then indignant because it had been sold to someone else.

As a newcomer to retailing, Chrystina was “shocked” to find out how much work was involved. “It was 24 hours a day, seven days a week and it knocked us out. But it’s very exciting and it’s a fantastic feeling when customers say they love what we are doing.”

The company is considering franchising the Skandium concept abroad if suitable retail partners can be found.

ENDS

A Q&A format interview published in XOP International.

Barbecue market is hotting up

Increasing the current growth in barbecue sales at retail without relying on the weather as the only way of maintaining consumer interest is the job of Richard Board, category controller of the gardening business unit at British DIY store and garden centre chain Focus DIY. He talks to Susan Fenton.

Seasonals International:

Is the barbecue market growing?

Richard Board:

Yes, we have seen significant year-on-year growth, particularly this year.

Seasonals International:

Is the growth due to the long hot summer?

Richard Board:

It’s not totally due to the weather. It’s also influenced by people’s lifestyles, by their desire to live out of doors and create a living area outside the house. People want decking, lights, wooden furniture, planters, shrubs – it’s an entire ambience.

Seasonals International:

What is causing this interest in the outdoors?

Richard Board:

I think it’s possibly due in large part to the extensive press and television coverage about cooking and outdoor lifestyles in general. It’s made people more aware of the potential of their garden as a living area.

Seasonals International:

Can the growth be sustained?

Richard Board:

Next year we are looking to maintain a similar level of growth that will not be dependent on the weather but will be caused by innovation. If we kept our range the same every year sales would not rise unless we happened to have a really hot summer again, so it’s important to plan something quite innovative.

Seasonals International:

What can you tell me about those plans for innovative products?

Richard Board:

It’s commercially sensitive so I can’t give details, but what I can say is that we will be trying to offer aspirational products. If you look at the basic barbecues that have been on sale this year, there were very few fashion-led, aspirational, ones, and that is something we are going to see more and more of, particularly in terms of shape and colour.

Seasonals International:

What price range do your barbecues cover?

Richard Board:

Entry level is about £39 and they go up to £200. There’s certainly potential in the market as a whole for even more expensive products but that would be moving away from what we’re about, which is catering for consumers right across the board. For us, there’s no such thing as a ‘typical’ consumer.

Seasonals International:

There are a lot of really big barbecues around. Are consumers trading up?

Richard Board:

There’s no doubt that there’s a market at the top end. This year we had a five-burner gas barbecue selling at £200 and we were very pleased with the sales – it sold out. It showed us that for many consumers, £200 is not too much to pay.

Having said that, our customer base cuts right across the board, so all types and sizes of barbecue sell well. There’s certainly demand for entry-level products. We have high sales both at the top-end and at entry level.

But we won’t be doing the five-burner again next year – we felt it was a step too far because there are only so many people who would find such a large barbecue desirable – at that size it’s almost a professional cooker. But we will be doing two-, three- and four-burner products to appeal to those people who want something more sophisticated than the standard lead-in price barbecue.

Seasonals International:

Is the trend towards gas instead of charcoal?

Richard Board:

We have gradually seen more and more gas barbecues, and by value gas is a higher proportion, but of course this is because gas barbecues cost more. People are very interested in the appearance, the ‘surround’ of the barbecue – they see it as a piece of furniture. For these consumers it’s the look of the thing – they want an attractive piece of furniture with a function. What is interesting is that there is a move towards having a nice barbecue fuelled by charcoal because many people prefer the flavour of charcoal-cooked food – and you tend not to get a flavour with gas.

Seasonals International:

How do you predict trends?

Richard Board:

We look at our own experience of what has been selling well, we take advice from our market research people and when we visit suppliers we take their advice. Some suppliers are better than others at trending, particularly the big global suppliers, who tend to be better at it than the smaller ones. Overall, all this gives us a pretty good idea of what the trends are going to be.

Seasonals International:

Do you buy existing ranges or have your products made especially for you?

Richard Board:

We tend to buy existing designs, but we might have them modified, for instance by adding an extra hob instead of a cooking tray, or changing the height of the trolley. Fundamentally, the first designs come from the supply base.

Seasonals International:

How many suppliers do you use, and which ones?

Richard Board:

It varies but usually no more than five to keep it manageable. I can’t tell you who they are as that’s commercially sensitive, but they tend to be a mix of British and foreign suppliers. By buying abroad we get the savings from buying direct, but it’s important to have the flexibility of a British-based supplier because this helps us manage demand better as they have stock on hand and so can deliver very quickly if necessary.

Seasonals International:

How do you choose suppliers?

Richard Board:

Barbecues are like any other product in this respect. We are looking for someone that shows innovation, that offers the right quality and offers workable price points that give us enough margin. And we need to be sure that they will deliver on time.

Seasonals International:

At what time of the year do you buy?

Richard Board:

We select the range in late summer for delivery from January onwards.

Seasonals International:

How do you promote barbecues to the public?

Richard Board:

We don’t market the benefits of barbecue ownership as such – that’s up to the manufacturers and suppliers to do, and they seem to do a good job at it. Certainly, their activities help retailers like us in terms of increasing awareness of the market. What we do at retail level is photograph the products in an aspirational way and make sure customers know we offer value for money in all our product range.

ENDS

Story B

About Focus

Focus Wickes is the second largest UK DIY retailer in terms of turnover. Through its Focus and Wickes branded stores, the group offers an extensive range of home improvement products to both DIY and trade customers. There are 282 Focus stores around the UK.

Focus aims to be the store of choice and convenience for DIY and gardening products in each of its local markets. Focus stores target DIY customers seeking to undertake light home improvement and maintenance projects and offer a comprehensive range of DIY and gardening products.

Products from its gas and charcoal barbecue ranges are included on the company’s website, which allows consumers to buy on-line.

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