Profile - Ian Filby: Armed with the knowledge to help grow a business empire

Ian Filby wants DFS to become a world class British business. He spoke to Deputy Business Editor Greg Wright.

THE path from the classroom to the boardroom can have many unexpected twists and turns. Ian Filby’s professional journey began on a doorstep.

Or to be more precise, it started on the doorstep of a house belonging to the British army in West Germany, at a time when John Le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy could have been read as a guide to contemporary Cold War politics. At the time, he was an eager teenager, determined to sell as many encyclopaedias as he could to boost his tiny earnings.

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Today, he’s got the job of taking sofa giant DFS to the corners of Britain. Thirty years on, he’s still grateful for the crash course in salesmanship which he gained in West Germany 30 years ago.

He’s also a self-confessed ‘fidget box’ whose bedside reading includes the works of the Dalai Lama.

“My experience as a travelling encyclopaedia salesman was more formative than my three years at university,’’ he said. “I travelled from town to town in Germany, selling in the married quarters estates of the squaddies. I was fresh out of school and saw an advert that offered me the chance to work in Germany. I was given a little black briefcase, taken to the estate and left to knock on the doors.

“It was one of the fastest learning experiences. It was a commission only job, paid in arrears.

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“I became reasonably proficient at German. It still helps me when I go on skiing holidays.”

On the face of it, the role of CEO at Doncaster-based DFS, which he took on last year, is a thousand times harder than working as a travelling salesman.

But the basics of selling are timeless. You must understand your customer, and tell them what sets you apart from the opposition.

Mr Filby wants to tell hundred of thousands of potential customers about the DFS story. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more iconic Yorkshire brand than DFS. Lord Graham Kirkham, the adopted son of a miner, founded the company in a former billiard hall in Doncaster 40 years ago. He went on to float the business in 1993 before taking it private in 2004 for £507m.

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Lord Kirkham sold DFS to private equity firm Advent International in April 2010 in a deal believed to be worth around £500m. “I am a great admirer of what Lord Kirkham has achieved here and we want to take it to an even greater place,’’ said Mr Filby.

Today, DFS employs 2,847 people across Britain, including 684 in its Yorkshire heartland.

Back in June, DFS revealed it had shrugged off “exceptionally demanding” conditions on the high street.

Mr Filby’s sights are on expansion, despite the economic storm clouds in Europe and fragile consumer confidence.

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He’s a strategic retailer to the core. After completing his stint selling encyclopaedias in Germany, he studied Natural Sciences at St Catherine’s College in Cambridge.

“After graduating, I joined Boots as a retail marketing graduate,’’ he recalled. “What made Boots such a great place was that half of its sales were Boots’ own brands. I learned a lot about procurement and brand management.

“I was working on brands like No 7 that dated from 1935 and had been passed down by generations of shoppers. During my time at Boots, I realised that I was interested in running teams of people. I enjoyed the concept of unravelling a business problem.

“I helped Advent with their due diligence into DFS last year. I knew that the business case was a good one.”

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Last year, Lord Kirkham was succeeded as chairman by former Alliance Boots chief executive, and Advent partner, Richard Baker.

Mr Baker was able to “convey confidence” in Mr Filby to Advent because of his Boots connection.

Before taking up the CEO role at DFS, Mr Filby had a “year of plurality” in which he worked as a part-time consultant at Alliance Boots and also served as interim chief executive of Groupe Aeroplan London, which manages the Nectar loyalty programme.

“I have been listening to DFS customers and finding out what they really think of us,’’ said Mr Filby. “You would be amazed by how few people know about our heritage and brand. We have not really shared much of our personality. We haven’t really told people who we are. I see this as an enormous opportunity to tell people about DFS. For example, we have our own vans and van drivers and we have our own upholsterers. We also have our own designers and sofa manufacturers.”

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Yorkshire remains a key part of the operations – there are 172 staff at the company’s head office and 246 employed in its Doncaster factory. Mr Filby also believes there’s ample scope for growth.

“I realised that the natural geographic expansion hadn’t been pursued for a number of years,’’ he said. “We have now embarked on a quite rapid expansion of our stores.”

Stores have recently opened in Dundee, Huddersfield and High Wycombe. Stores are also planned in places like the Old Kent Road, in London, Hereford, and Colne in Lancashire.

In June, DFS, which has around 80 stores altogether, said sales excluding VAT were down 0.7 per cent to £486m in the nine months to April 30, reflecting a “softening in overall consumer spending” in 2011. But underlying profits rose 3.1 per cent to £56.2m as it maintained its profit margins and achieved marketing efficiencies.

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Mr Filby said: “We’re very confident about our current trading. Tough times are often the best times to do your expansion.

“Every time we open a store then, typically, it leads to another 25 jobs. We plan to open another six stores between now and Christmas. We have strong plans to build in Sheffield next year.”

According to Mr Filby, companies should be comfortable with their business plans and not respond to the short-term economic cycle.

“In all we plan to open another 19 stores between now and July 2013,’’ he said. “We kit out our stores to make sure there are things in them that are right for all types of customers. We have also become more accessible online. A large number of shoppers trust the brand by shopping online, and trust their personal shopper service.

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“We have set ourselves the goal of becoming a world class British business. In the UK, we have hit corners like Inverness, but there are still some areas of the country that are under-explored. We are adapting our online sales to meet the requirements of the Republic of Ireland. However, there are no firm plans to open stores there or in Europe.”

As part of what Mr Filby describes as an “ongoing mid-life crisis” he sets himself a challenge a year.

In the last few years, he’s climbed Mont Blanc and Island Peak in the Himalayas, and conducted a skiing tour of the Arctic Circle. These are all feats, perhaps, that merit an encyclopaedia entry of their own.

Ian Filby Factfile

Name: Ian Filby

Date of birth: January 27 1959

Title: Chief executive of DFS Furniture

Favourite song: While My Guitar Gently Weeps by George Harrison

Favourite film: Dr Zhivago

Car driven: BMW 535 DM Sport

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Education: Blue Coat School Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital, Bristol and St Catherine’s College, Cambridge

First job: Door-to-door encyclopaedia salesman

Last book read: The Leader’s Way by the Dalai Lama

Thing you are most proud of: The creation of my three beautiful children.

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