EXCLUSIVEINTERVIEW
Now, as we have a complete story of
furniture, commercially it makes sense to have shop fronts, so the customer can engage with the brand and the lifestyle; that’s why we decided to franchise. We can now partner up with franchisees who may not be retail experts but understand excellent service and have a passion for furniture.
Has the Gautier brand overcome many challenges? With hindsight there are a couple of things we may have done a little differently. Firstly, the business grew very quickly and now has over 100 stores globally, with more than 50 in France. We are looking to change things slightly moving forward; we want quality not quantity, and want to focus on getting the new store in Chelsea, in the west of London, spot on before we start expanding further afi eld in the UK.
Are you hoping to open more Gautier stores across the UK? Yes, but we are being very cautious with the partners we are choosing to expand the franchise with. It’s not just about someone’s potential to invest, it’s about the person, too. Once you make the commitment with a franchisee, it’s very diffi cult to get out of the franchise agreement if it all starts to go pear-
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shaped. So really getting to know the person well is vital before they help to grow the business.
What support and/or training do you offer your franchisees?
In terms of the nuts and bolts, there’s ongoing support and training, and the intranet is
available to all our franchisees. But, we also have global meetings, which means getting everybody from the Gautier company, whatever their role, together for an amazing global conference. It’s a wonderful time for everybody to share their experiences and see how each franchisee runs their franchise in different countries. n
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