30 Inside the colourful world of Joe Browns By Simon Brown, Managing Director, Joe Browns The story behind Joe Browns
It all started in a beach bar in Wales. I was sat having a beer when a group of young friends came in, straight off the beach from surfing, to grab a drink to finish off their day. Tey were having an absolute blast! Still with sand in their hair, they were laughing and joking and were the kind of group you just wanted to be a part of. Tat was the essence, right there, of Joe Browns. Fun, spontaneous and free. I wanted to recreate that and give people who live life to the full, clothing that was confident and would express their individuality. I’d grown up around fashion and worked for my father’s clothing
manufacturing company for several years, but had always wanted to branch out on my own with a mail order business. After months of waking up in the mornings moaning and groaning to my wife about how unhappy I was, she finally had enough and told me I had to sort myself out. So I left the family business and set up Joe Browns in 1998.
How the business has evolved
Joe Browns first started as a menswear band – selling through mail order, online and through key wholesale accounts. Tere were less than 10 of us working from a little office in Farsley, West Yorkshire. In 2002 we decided to expand into womenswear. Tis side of the business really took off and it wasn’t long before sales from womenswear overtook men’s. We outgrew two offices before moving to our current base in Leeds, in 2009, which is also home to our warehouse. In 2014 we set up our independent wholesale business, selling to small boutiques all over the country. Tis has now expanded to over 250 accounts worldwide, including America, Australia and Europe. We now have 130 full-time employees, over a million customers and gross retail sales last year totalled £106m. During this time, we have continuously listened to our
customers and have taken huge strides forwards in the quality of both our product and our marketing. We have continued to enhance the brand, creating a rich, interesting and very three dimensional appeal that creates great stand-out in all our channels. We have also worked hard on all our communications, reviewing when and how we communicate with customers at all stages of their journey with us – this has led to a much loyal customer base
who spend more with us, more often. Direct Commerce |
www.directcommercemagazine.com
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