BRAND PROFILE


Cheryl Taylor, Editor, talks to Derek Williamson, Sales Director, of The West Miland Shoe Company.


After a few great years, sadly the factory owner retired, to be replaced by management who wanted to take the brand along a more fashionable route. Gone were the simple ladies comfort sandals and boots to be replaced with fashion items, adorned with buckles, buttons, bows, feathers and sequins !! I’m sure you get the picture! The brand quickly lost the loyal customer base it had painstakingly built up over the years and went into decline, by 2009 it was effectively “dead in the water “ The factory went out of business a few years later. Two years ago


Country Jack - What’s the story behind the brand? Way back in the 1990’s, The West Midland Shoe Company was dealing with a small factory in Barletta, southern Italy, buying a few thousand pair of ladies basic cemented sandals. In the late 1990’s the factory wanted to branch out into the branded market and a design consultancy was approached. Two names were suggested, “Pretty Linda” and “Country Jack”. The factory


owners were taken with “Pretty Linda” and decided to go ahead and develop this brand. The buyer for West Midland, Derek Williamson, preferred “Country Jack” and was told quite dismissively that he could have it! The factory saw Country Jack as a men’s brand so produced three styles


of men’s boots. West Midland took these and sold 6,000 pairs, not a bad start considering that West Midland was seen has a “ladies” house. The following season Derek asked for some ladies boots to accompany the men’s offering, to be told that “he needed his bumps feeling” Country Jack was a men’s brand!! After a few heated discussions, three ladies boots were designed and


accepted. 35,000 pairs of these boots were sold and the factory started to take a little more interest. The following season ladies sandals were introduced and coincidently


another 35,000 pairs were sold. Now Derek really had the factories attention! “Pretty Linda” was now only a distant memory and a great deal of work and effort was put into promoting the brand. Lots of enthusiasm on the Italian side was put into designing new shoes, new boxes, new POS, even down to designing new tissue paper. Lots more effort in the UK was put into promoting the brand and to cut a long story short “Country Jack” in the UK really took off. It was considered for quite a while as “the fastest growing footwear brand in the UK” and it wasn’t long before the sales were over the 500,000 pair mark. The factory, by now had launched the brand throughout Europe and


the growth was so great that a new, much larger, factory had to be built to supply demand.


Contact details for the Trade: West Midland Shoe Company 18 • FOOTWEAR TODAY • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017


West Midland bought the rights for the “Country Jack” brand and has now relaunched it. The first year, factories in the Far East were used but this did not work out, so last year the decision was made to take the brand back to its roots in Europe. Several factories in Italy and Spain were chosen and a new range was put


together. Quality leathers for the uppers and cushioned footbeds have been sourced, along with some PU and canvas styles has resulted in a highly colourful, commercial and eclectic range is been offered for summer 2018. The range is now available to see along with West Midlands other highly


successful “Earth Spirit” range. Hopefully now with lots of hard work behind the scenes, this brand will soon again have the tag of the “fastest growing footwear brand in the UK”


Is there a brand philosophy? Quality and comfort.


What sets this brand apart from the rest? To try to offer the customer something a little different, that is also of excellent quality and comfortable - all this at a very good price.


Does this brand offer a good profit margin for retailers? There is a good profit margin for retailers and, like most of our competitors, we recommend RRP’s, so this profit margin can be achieved.


Where is the brand assembled/manufactured? It is now all made from very select, Italian and Spanish factories.


Who is the agent? We have six representatives who cover the UK and Ireland.


How is the brand marketed? Do you use social networking? We use lots of advertising via social media and advertising, we also help our customers with any of their advertising needs.


Any famous customers? To many to mention I’m sure!!!


T: 01889 561790 E: enquiries@wmsc.co.uk W: www.wmsc.co.uk


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