Store pays tribute to region’s textiles heritage

Ray Kelvin told the Yorkshire Post that retailers must create stores that stand out as the world becomes homogenised and customers buy anything they want online.

Ted Baker will reopen its store in the Victoria Quarter in Leeds next Friday.

The entrepreneur said: “It’s needed a facelift. We trade very well there. We have a lot of really loyal long-term customers. It’s well overdue.

“It’s paying homage to the textile trade from Yorkshire. A lot of weaving and a lot of cotton reels and lots of industrial design harking back to the Spinning Jenny and Arkwright.”

Ted Baker sources fabrics from a number of Yorkshire mills, including Clissold and Abraham Moon & Sons.

Mr Kelvin said: “Fashion has moved over the last year or so towards heritage and heritage design and fabrics and Britishness.

“There’s a lot of movement back to British wools and people have been trying to use it when they possibly can. It really adds value.”

Ted Baker has managed to trade well throughout the downturn. Earlier this month, the London-based group said new stores helped push up first half revenue by almost a third, and added that its autumn-winter collections had been well received.

Mr Kelvin said: “We are a brand. We have a wholesale business, a licensed business and shops. We are not purely retail.

“Our products sell in other people’s stores around the world. We have shops and wholesale representation and licensing in 35 countries. So it’s not just retail.

“High streets are having a hard time, what with e-commerce. People can represent their brands without shops.

“That’s the way it is. People don’t need to drive 20 miles to get somewhere. They click and buy. The world moves on.”

He said successful stores must stand out.

Mr Kelvin added: “Customer service is absolutely critical. Interaction with customers and product knowledge is absolutely key. A great environment. A stand-out product.

“The world is becoming homogenised. You can buy the same thing all over the world. You have to have something that gives a special feel. Something they can’t buy anywhere else so there’s a reason for them to come to your shop.”

In the UK, Mr Kelvin said London is trading very well, but he does not buy into the view that the capital is another country.

“We trade very well in the fashion city centres around the country; we trade well in Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow, Nottingham.

“It’s the towns that maybe are secondary, the suburbs that are suffering. The local high street is suffering. But Ted Baker is not in those.”

Shares in Ted Baker have more than doubled in a year to 1,920 pence as the firm continues to attract shoppers despite pressure on consumer spending, and develops it global presence with new stores in Asia and the United States.

The company, which makes around 80 per cent of sales in the UK and Europe, opened new locations in Tokyo, Beijing and New York in 2012, and has added more in the US as well as Belgium, Canada and Shanghai in the first half of 2013.

The group, which has more than 340 stores and concessions worldwide, said it had been encouraged by the reaction to the brand in its latest territories.

Mr Kelvin, a Londoner, founded the business in Glasgow in 1988, “a really trendy time” when the city was the European capital of culture.

“It’s a long story,” he said, when asked how he had succeeded in building an international brand with nearly £1bn in sales. The only vital ingredient is a word beginning with T and that’s talent.”

He said talent can be both innate and learned.

“Always learn,” he added. “But in terms of design I suppose that’s innate. You have got to have a feel for it.

“What do you do with that and how do you work with people?

“It’s about people. It’s not about one, it’s about all.”

He said Ted Baker represents humility, quality and style and is “twice the product at half the price”.

Mr Kelvin is notoriously camera shy and has become well-known for only ever agreeing to appear in photographs if his face has been obscured in some way.

Asked why, he said: “It’s all about the brand, it’s not about one individual. And I’m an ugly bugger.”

Asked about his plans for the future, he said: “More of the same, but better.”

Mr Kelvin, who was awarded a CBE in 2011, added: “I would like to thank Yorkshire for supporting Ted Baker, a homegrown British brand, a business that I started from my kitchen.

“We will carry on doing our best by being old-fashioned and serving our customer in the best way possible.

“That will continue in Leeds from next Friday when we open in the Victoria Quarter.”

Ted Baker is one of the only international fashion brands not to advertise.

Retailer in line for top award

HARROGATE retailer Lynx Menswear has been shortlisted for a prestigious industry award.

The company will find out if it has won the best menswear independent and premium fashion retailer at the 2013 Drapers Independents Awards next month.

Owner Guy Hudson said: “So proud for the Lynx team to be recognised for hard work, excellent service and offering an unparalleled retail experience.”

The chosen charity for the trade awards is the Fashion & Textile Children’s Trust.

All proceeds from the event will help to change the lives of children coping with disability, sickness, special needs and financial 
hardship.