COMPANY PROFILE Reasons to love Q&A Cheryl Taylor talks to Chris Marrum of Petasil.
Tell us the history of the company and the story behind the brand? Petasil is the brainchild of Mario
Tavares and Chris Marrum. Both have extensive experience of the shoe trade and some ten years ago created Petasil. The idea behind Petasil was to create a premium kids shoe brand specifically geared to the UK market, with design centred in the UK and production in Portugal (a centre of excellence) as opposed to China. The ethos behind the brand is that quality, fit and innovative styling is king.
Do you have a brand philosophy? Our brand philosophy is simple
“Fit for kids”, in every sense of the word, in that the leather we use is second to none and fit and flexibility are highly considered with foot health in mind. They are also shoes that Mum’s and Dad’s approve of and that kids want to wear.
How many pairs of shoes did you sell last year? 120,000 pairs
What sets your company’s products apart? Petasil is unique: designed in the
UK for a British market place and manufactured in Portugal. Petasil is big on fit and foot health but also super stylish, with concepts based around school shoes that kids really want to wear. Parents are confident they are buying shoes that will take care of their children’s feet as well as being durable.
Where are you based We operate out of the UK from
Northampton, a town with a rich history in the shoe industry. We also have offices in Porto in Portugal, which is famed for shoe production.
How many people work for Petasil? Currently there’s 7 of us in the UK
and around 100 in Portugal. It’s a great working environment building up a relatively new and vibrant brand. Everyone is passionate and that’s why we’re making such headway and gaining consumer recognition.
How do you market your products? Do you use social networking? Marketing is essential to the
success of Petasil and we’re upping our game year on year. It’s imperative that all our activity also benefits our retailers, which is why we’ve come up with the “Fit for Kids” bike promotion. The stores that have opted-in get a fabulous branded Petasil bike to giveaway, plus we’re also doing a bespoke PR programme for each retailer with their local press to drive footfall. We use social media too, to help raise awareness and are keen to involve our retailers and happily share any of their relevant posts. We’re also pushing regular competitions on Facebook and have an active Pinterest account.
Any famous customers? Petasil seems to be the brand of
choice for the fashion conscious kids of famous footballers. Frank Lampard and Thierry Henry’s children wear Petasil.
22 • FOOTWEAR TODAY • FEBRUARY 2014
We’ve also heard rumours the premiere league fashionista that is Harper Beckham has been seen sporting Petasil shoes.
Plans for the future? We like to think Petasil as always
innovating and improving our core product range. We like to push the fashion boundaries, whilst staying true to fit and using the finest quality leather. One area we’re a little different is that we offer slimmer fittings as well as the ubiquitous wider fits. We believe Petasil to be a vehicle for quality fitters, to enable our customers to serve their client base which is why we also offer niche colour-ways for school shoes in navy, red and also formals for school wear which suits various religious and private schools.
Contact:
sales@marrum.co.uk 01604 876 800
www.petasil.com
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