13 minute read
Retail
Family matters
Lavinia Watts, Lenleys partner on generational moves, brand values and accelerating change
Lenleys’ Canterbury store
It is the final day at work for Lavinia Watts, Lenleys partner before she starts maternity leave.
‘I will still very much be in touch in the background, I’ll just allow myself a bit of time to step away and adjust to a new home life. That’ll probably be quite difficult,’ she laughs. ‘I’m a control freak in what I think is a good way: I like to be involved and have my finger on lots of different things, in my life as well as business. Adjusting to that, not being involved in every single element might take a while, but hopefully with a newborn baby I won’t have time to worry about it.’
Watts, 32, is the third generation of the Watts family to run the Canterbury furniture and flooring store and its Clarkes store in Maidstone. Combined they have sales of about £8m and employ 50 staff. Her grandfather Leonard Watts founded the company with Stanley Adsett in 1936, with the two men tossing a coin to decide which blend of their names – Lenleys or Stannards – they would give to the store. Len won.
‘It’s probably rare these days as we are a partnership and all the partners are members of the family: my father Jonathan, me and my aunt Janine, who has never been involved in the day-today running of the business. Alan Smart is the equivalent of our ceo – we aren’t a limited company, but he has the authority to make decisions on our behalf. I work closely with him; we run the business together. My cousin Oliver Greenfield joined us about 18 months ago and will become a partner, and that will mean we remain a family partnership. He and I are a similar age and are looking to take the business forward.’
A blog by Watts on the company’s website tells of her playing with computers on display as a child. ‘I was involved from the very beginning so I’ve always been here. I used to work in the cafe when I was still at school, helping with the dishwasher and taking food to tables. I remember way, way back when home office equipment and desktop computers were much more substantial than they are now. We had one on display and I used to run around
Lavinia Watts
pretending the shopfloor was my office, which must have wound everyone up. Now I think about it as an adult… oh my!
‘I’ve grown up in the business, very much so. Even after I left home, it was often easier to come here to see my dad than go to the house. When I joined the business in 2015, that was the start of the journey of my future being here.’
Was there ever a chance she wouldn’t end up working at Lenleys? ‘You know what, I did think about it,’ she laughs. ‘I think I’m quite lucky… lucky isn’t the right word, it’s my parents and who they are: I’ve always known it was here as a possibility. My father in particular, and my aunt, never put any pressure on us to come into the business. It was always known they’d like us to, because of course you want a family business to stay with the family. But none of us would be doing it if we didn’t want to. It was always, only if it’s right for you and you’re going to be happy doing it.’
Rather than join the company straight from school, Watts achieved a first-class degree in fashion buying at Manchester Metropolitan University, including a year working for fashion label Irwin & Jordan. Further experience was gained with two and a half years as trainee and deputy store manager at Toys “R” Us.
‘If anything, I had to have a bit of a conversation with Dad to say: “Do you want me to come in? Is it an option?” I think he was almost over-cautious not to put pressure on me or my sister or cousins, and that has worked out for the best as it means we have joined at the right time for us and we love it to pieces. I’m so happy that I have done it. It’s definitely a job that gives me stresses and strains, but that’s part of it and in the main I enjoy every element of it.’
Fashion was Watts’ first passion, but it failed to provide the enjoyment she wanted. ‘It was more of a head office function, what I had trained to do, and I wanted to be on the retail side of things. With homewares and furniture you still get to be creative and be a part of that fashion side. It’s driven by aesthetics and that’s what I love.
‘Still being a family-run business gives us more flexibility – we can react a bit quicker and are a slightly softer business to work for: more friendly and open. I like to think I’m very approachable and my father is too, although he doesn’t get overly involved now since he’s almost retired.
‘It’s exciting to think that people work here because they like working here, not just because they need a job. I like knowing the team are here because they want to be and they feel it is a benefit to them as well as to us – rather than being a number and working for someone you never really see. We value them, and if we do well they should experience some of that as well.
‘We’re all people. Here, I’m Lavinia, my father is Jonathan and Alan Smart is Alan. The only time that changes is when there are tricky situations and it’s difficult – that needs some separation. But when everything is going well and it’s a weekend and we’re all in to
The store on Roper Road in Canterbury
help with a big event, then we’re all doing the same job, we’re there for the same reason.’
Is Watts’ management style different to her father’s? ‘I don’t think there is one particular thing I can pull out that I’m doing differently, mainly because my father is a great retailer. The more I’ve been involved in the business, the more I’m in awe of him, and what he’s been through in the time he’s run the business.
‘Where I have differences… I think I’m slightly more buying driven. Product is really where I am more interested. Most of it is, what did he do well and do I want to continue? He’s been successful – it’s a successful business. Sometimes you don’t want to overly change something because it’s working as it is.
‘That’s not to say there aren’t things we can do better. We’re working on a new website, for example. I am looking to make changes, and that’s hugely driven by needing to be better online. But that’s only because of the timing – the world is a very different place now. We have a way to go, but we are invested in making sure we do it properly.
‘One of the main things we’ve always been known for is carrying things that people can’t find locally, and that is getting harder and harder to do with the Internet. I want us still to be a place that someone will come and say: “I haven’t seen that anywhere else, that’s amazing,” even if they don’t like it. That impactful, statement part of the business is important. It’s why you would travel to visit us and be invested in our brands.
‘I think we do that in the most part quite well, and it’s very much about the store environment – ensuring that we stay a destination that people want to come to, not just because we have furniture on display and you can sit on it, but because of the experience you will have while you are here: getting good advice, speaking to nice friendly people, being in an environment that is comfortable and welcoming. Then you will feel you are making decisions for the right reasons and supporting a business that wants to help you find what’s right for you, rather than just making a purchase from us. Obviously we are here to make money, I’m not downplaying that, but it needs to be because we have the right things that people want.
‘More and more, what we are doing is making sure the store environment is better. What’s going to keep the high street and retail bricks-and-mortar stores going is the experience – it’s not all about the product and the price, the experience of shopping is just as important. Before the pandemic, I was trying to push us that way and to think that way. Our customers typically weren’t quite as savvy online and maybe didn’t see the need to be – they’re probably a slightly older demographic. But Covid-19 really accelerated that move, because you couldn’t do anything any other way. And that has meant we’ve had to up our game quite a lot sooner than we might have. Online is a great tool, but it doesn’t mean that people won’t want to come in person to shop, and see and sit and feel and experience – and that’s what we have to remember.
‘Next year will see the new website launched, which will move the branding on a little bit – setting out who we are. Then there's a new flooring
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department, which – I know I'm biased but it looks incredible. It’s very modern and not something you’ll see anywhere else. It’s not your traditional carpet and hard flooring visual representation.’
The move will make room for a new ‘trendy’ furniture section, which Watts hopes will attract new customers. ‘It’s something not available in this area yet, so that’s hugely exciting.
As for the past 18 months? ‘It’s been tough, and if anyone says otherwise, they’re lying. The hardest part was at the start of the pandemic, when no-one really knew what was going to happen. I think we coped well with that, and with realising that we needed more than ever to invest in the business and make sure we’d be ready once we could open again. Ready to get going quickly and be on the front foot. So while the stores were closed, we continued to work on a new business system. We recognised that was something we needed, to allow us to bring in the new website next year. If we hadn’t done that, we’d still be two years away from the website and all the changes that are very much needed now.
‘As an industry we’ve been fortunate. There was a peak in demand when people were able to get back out and about and go shopping. They were at home – you couldn’t go on holiday – and they wanted to update their homes and invest back into them. But we still had to work hard to make sure they came to us and not somebody else.
‘In some ways it has been an incredible 18 months as business has been very, very good. The tougher bits have been supply chain issues and pricing, but that’s nothing that can’t be overcome and we’re all in the same boat. Covid-19 did a good job of levelling the playing field. We’ve all had the same problems even if everyone coped with them differently.
‘I’m proud the business has been going for 85 years this year and I have no plans to be slowing that down! I very much aim to be here for the next 30 to 40 years while I make those changes, and hopefully we’ll have someone who wants to take it on past that. It’s important to me that I continue the legacy that my grandfather built, and my father built, and make sure I represent what this brand stands for.’
As a young woman in an industry that is heavily male dominated has she had any problems? ‘I see it as an asset rather than a challenge. The industry is sometimes a bit traditional, but it has changed a lot since I joined. I have seen a seismic change in that short period. There have been instances when I've been dismissed and an older male colleague has been addressed as if he’s in charge. That’s just people making assumptions and I have no qualms about correcting them.
‘I’m fortunate that I have a team here and a family that are hugely supportive and encouraging. In this and other industries where senior management is quite male-dominated, I don’t think about it – it doesn’t cross my mind that it should make any difference. It’s not how I think of people when I interview them to employ them, or when I meet and talk to suppliers. The only thing is I can’t talk rubbish about football as much.
‘My dad has always been very encouraging that my sister and I can achieve as much as anyone else and I’ve always believed that. It makes the business a bit different to have a daughter come in and take things over. To me, that can only be a positive. Women make most of the buying decisions when it comes to the home, so if anything that is more of a reason for me to take the business forward.’ Visit: www.lenleys.co.uk
The Interiors Studio
MAJOR MAIDSTONE PLANS
There are also big plans for the Clarkes store in Maidstone, which the Lenleys bought in 2007. Adsett and Watts were from Maidstone and would probably have opened their store in the town if the Clarke family hadn’t done so a couple of years before. ‘We have a large amount of investment going into there next year. It’s still under wraps, but people will be able to go there and experience something that isn’t in the town at all. That will be a very exciting change,’ says Watts. Since the acquisition, the Clarkes product selection has moved to follow that of Lenleys, and Watts wants to add elements of flooring, soft furnishings and a design service, space permitting. The two stores allow the company to target shoppers across Kent, parts of Sussex and south London.
