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INTERVIEW THE BIG
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By Ged Henderson
BACK ON THE FRONT FOOT
Hotter Shoes chief executive Ian Watson is confident the UK’s biggest footwear manufacturer will continue to make great strides on its journey towards new owners and a bright digital future.
He’s had a challenging two years leading the step-change at the Skelmersdale business that sells more than 1.3 million pairs of shoes a year and currently employs around 500 people.
Last July, after a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) proposal got the green light from creditors, the business permanently closed 59 of its 82 stores.
The move, which led to the loss of just shy of 400 jobs, pre-empted the hammering of the high street and accelerated Hotter’s long-term business strategy to become a digital-first retailer.
Ian, whose impressive CV includes roles as chief executive of Start- Rite shoes and as Germany-based European managing director of Britax Childcare, was appointed in March 2019 to reposition the West Lancashire brand as a leading name in e-commerce.
It is a strategy that appears to be paying off. Online sales jumped by 20 per cent over the last lockdown period and 90 per cent of its new customers over the past 12 months have been acquired through digital channels.
The brand currently serves more than four million customers in the UK and overseas, buying online, through mail order and through its 17 ‘Technology Centres’.
Ian, 48, describes these as “experiential stores”, utilising tech to offer a more personalised service-led approach, with less inventory held on site. He believes they are the future for Hotter’s much reduced bricks and mortar operation.
If there is one thing everyone has learned through this pandemic, it is that you have got to be agile
That future will increasingly be led by industry-leading technical innovations, including 3D foot scanning machines and augmented reality fittings that will take place in ‘shoe shops with no shoes’.
Looking back at the events of 2020, he says: “Pre-covid we had a very clear strategy, which was to reduce the exposure to high street retail and to ramp up our digital resources.
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