the BIG interview
“We see ourselves as the guardians of the independent retailer”
This month’s keynote Big Interview is with Rob and Su Sutton, founders and directors of Europe’s largest housewares and SDA distributor, RKW. They talk innovation, the importance of family and the hard work that took them from humble beginnings to their leading role in the industry.
I
f you are looking for an inspirational story of sheer hard work coupled
with sharp insight turning a fledgling business into a success, then that’s RKW. Su Sutton and her husband Rob started the business in 1989 with £200 and a hired van to deliver SDA seconds and excess stock to retailers up and down the country. The company now has a turnover of over £100m, 750,000sqft distribution capacity, an unrivalled drop ship facility and employs over 400 people in the UK, Hong Kong and China where they have a showroom and sourcing centre. They have notched up several firsts in that
30+ years – the first factory in China to produce an electric kettle was for Rob and Su, the start of their first own brand, Signature. “That first kettle retailed for £30 each,” said Rob, “and now it would be nearer £10 – that shows just how prices have eroded.” They got their first brand licence in 2007
– Pifco from Russell Hobbs – and their first housewares licence in 2010, for Morphy Richards. Their first brand acquisition was in 2013 – Tower followed by Carmen in 2014. Licensed brand partnerships now also include Black & Decker and Akai, while on the brand distribution side partners include Breville, Lavazza, Morphy Richards, Russell Hobbs, Swan, Smeg, Hoover and Numatic. “Our distribution partners represent an important part of RKW,” says Rob. “We work closely with them, providing sales and data analysis and driving incremental business in line with their brand strategy.” But it is tracing back to those early days in
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www.innovativeelectricalretailing.co.uk We were lucky – Rob was in
the right place at the right time to get good deals. We took big risks and nine times out of ten they paid off
business which underlines their achievement. Su picks up the story. “Rob left school and trained at a service repair agent in Stoke – in those days if you bought a kettle and it had a problem, you’d take it to one of the service agents you’d find in
Rob and Su Sutton today in the RKW showroom
the back of the instruction manual and they’d try to repair it. After a few years, the MD of that agent got offered seconds from a manufacturer. He came onto the shop floor and said to the lads ‘I’ve been offered these, do any of you want to go round the local shops and sell them?’ Rob said ‘I’ll have a go!’ “The boss gave him his car keys, filled up the boot with half a dozen samples and Rob cold- called businesses in the area. He did well, people were buying. He sold £1m in the first year!” In light of this success, when Rob’s request for a pay rise and a company car fell on deaf
September 2020
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