products to be designed. Looking at the list of furloughed staff, Costin found ways to bring teams back to work.
Dealing with the consumer like never
before, Costin decided to bring back customer services. ‘[The consumer] want[s] to know exactly what’s happening, when their product is going to be ordered,’ Costin explains. His solution, unheard of in the industry, was to create an app similar to that of a pizza takeaway, which updates the customer on the preparation and journey of their pizza in real time; Costin wanted Bisley’s own customers to enjoy these same levels of communication. With marketing, it invested heavily in social
media and ‘putting our brand out there’, Costin says. And in terms of product – well, with the rise of homeworking, there was an increasing
demand for home ofice solutions. While Bisley has typically outsourced design, Costin took its four product designers out of furlough to create a new range for this burgeoning market. ‘I emailed [them], introduced myself and said, “Look, you guys are product designers. You are creative, you’ve got flair. If I gave you an opportunity, a no-holds-barred opportunity, to be able to go and design products that we have to be able to make in our factory...”’ And they did. Bisley brought the results – the Belong collection – to market within three months, ‘and we did a launch for the [line], put it on the shop, and it went absolutely vertical,’ Costin thrills. ‘All I did was say, “This is the idea, you come up with it.” And they’ve done it. The technical people, the people in the factory, they’ve pulled this all together, and this is the first time it’s ever
happened at Bisley... ever. You’ve got this whole new camaraderie [among] people, [saying] “Now, what’s next Richard, let’s come up with something else.”’ Following the success of Belong, which found
its way into consumer magazines in a way previous Bisley products never had, the company followed up with an update to its Be collection, combining personal storage with subtle space division. This has already brought in large orders from resellers. Costin knows that what happens next is hard
to predict, but he is proud of what Bisley has achieved and how its teams have been revived. It may not be exactly what he envisaged back at the start of 2020, but Costin is glad to have ‘dragged Bisley into a new era. And do things differently – that’s the most important part.’
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