74 CLASSIC CANES T: +44 (0)1460 75686 www.classiccanes.co.uk team can offer our customers is almost impossible for a competitor to replicate. What are some stand-out moments since the company launch? A story we often tell is about a very large order we received from the Johnnie Walker whisky company in America for a corporate presentation. They bought enough tippling canes (with a flask inside for whisky) to pay for a new warehouse building, which helped tremendously at the time. After we had supplied them, my mother asked the buyer why they had chosen Classic Canes, expecting to hear something complimentary about our reputation, products and service. “Oh honey,” said the buyer, “We just loved your dogs.” They had seen our golden retrievers on our website and that was what swung the deal. Needless to say, the dogs have featured in our marketing materials ever since, in case any other buyers feel the same way. How are you finding the current climate in the UK? Is it affecting business? There’s no denying it is a difficult time for the economy. We may not be technically in recession but perceived recessions can have much the same effect on discretionary spending. Many people are worried about what the future holds and are being careful about how they spend their money, whether they are retailers or their customers. Fortunately, our sales generally hold up pretty well in challenging times, partly because people always need walking sticks, whatever the state of the economy, but also because we offer good quality at fair prices. When times are harder, people think a bit more about whether their purchase will last and are more responsible about how they spend their money than in boom times. How do you view the future of independent retail? In many ways, it looks a lot more hopeful for independent retailers than for the big high-street chains. It is much easier for a small retailer to differentiate themselves from competitors and give customers a good reason to shop in a store rather than order things up from Amazon. A very interesting book to read is Less by Patrick Grant of The Great British Sewing Bee fame. He makes the case for ‘buy less, buy better, buy local’ and explains how much better this is for local jobs and populations, the British economy and the environment. I think every independent retailer should read it: he makes many practical observations that could be very important for independent retailers over the next few years. Are you active on social media? How is this important for the business? We are active on Facebook and Instagram, finding the latter the more beneficial of the two. We don’t have a huge following but we have a dedicated one and many good new accounts have found their way to us through social media. Our stockists are also very adept at harvesting our images and recycling them into posts of their own, so it is easy and helpful to them too. Do you have any advice for new businesses starting out in the world of gifts? I think it is important to specialise and be really good at one thing rather than dabble in lots of areas. Some gift products have a very low barrier to entry which results in lots of competitors all selling much the same items and competing on price, which usually means a race to the bottom for everyone. If you pick something a little more complicated, find your niche and develop a reputation for doing it well, it is much harder for potential competitors to muscle in. What can we expect in the future from the company? We will continue gradually evolving and refining our product range but Classic Canes is probably at its optimum size and the core activities of the business will remain much the same. As a family business, our objectives are to facilitate a good living for ourselves and our employees, our customers and suppliers. Our activities have to benefit everyone in the chain or it isn’t good business.
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