talking shop


Monday February 4 2019 THE NATIONAL MOTORCYCLE MUSEUM, BIRMINGHAM


‘A fantastic opportunity’


Independent housewares retailer Huus is the winner of the Exclusively Shows’ Thrive and Survive’ competition. Joint partners Ron and Jane Dekker tell their story.


Northern European countries and our love of shopping in lifestyle stores in The Netherlands.


Tell us a bit about your business. It’s actually all in the name, which was created using the Dutch, Scandinavian and Scottish words for ‘house’ or ‘home’. We look predominantly to Dutch and Danish design trends for ideas but we source products from many other countries too, which reinforce this styling concept of clean lines and colours. We have created a relaxed retail space where


customers can be inspired by a range of carefully selected housewares, home accessories, lighting and small pieces of furniture that are both affordable but stylish.


L-R: Scarlet Opus futurist Victoria Redshaw at Huus with joint partners Ron and Jane Dekker S


ix months ago, Ron and Jane Dekker visited the co-located London trade shows Exclusively Housewares and


Exclusively Electrical for the first time -- and decided to enter a competition held at the two- day event by organiser Brooke House Exhibitions. The contest, called ‘Thrive and Survive’, offered


one retailer the chance of a free consultation with trend forecasting agency Scarlet Opus and the couple, who are joint partners of independent housewares retailer Huus, were “absolutely delighted” when they heard the news that they had won. The consultation includes a review of their store’s


layout, décor, product range and merchandising, along with an assessment of its website and social media presence, and offers recommendations ‘to create a retail environment that is appealing to today’s consumer’. Rob and Jane opened Huus in November 2017 in


the Suffolk market town of Halesworth. They recall: “We visited Exclusively Housewares after only being open for eight months. It was therefore still early days in terms of our knowledge of product selection, customer profile, footfall, marketing and so on. “Although we believe our business strategy is


strong, we put ourselves forward for the project as we knew that somebody with a fresh view would find new and different opportunities that we might


32 | housewareslive.net


not see – and would challenge us in our thinking about the future direction of Huus.” Exclusively Shows said Huus was chosen for ‘the


opportunities it presents, its enthusiasm to take part and its openness to react to and implement the recommendations’. Scarlet Opus director Phil Pond and futurist


Victoria Redshaw visited Huus in late November – and their recommendations will be revealed in a forthcoming issue of Housewares Magazine.


What’s your background? Ron: I’m native Dutch and trained as a photographer at The Hague in The Netherlands. I then worked in the graphic design industry, owning my own studio in Amsterdam for a number of years. Jane: my background is in International Human


Resources and Organisation Development. I lived in The Netherlands for nine years. We moved to the Scottish Highlands in 2007


where we owned three retail businesses, including a photographic studio, before relocating to Suffolk in 2017.


Why did you decide to open Huus? A decision to live closer to family led to us moving to the south-east. Being in a much more accessible location to establish a relevant customer base, we could then explore a retail concept which we had been thinking about for a while, using both our experience of design and consumer trends in


• HousewaresLive.net • twitter.com/Housewaresnews December 2018


Describe your product mix. The Dutch would call Huus a ‘lifestyle concept store’ which means a range of home accessories from candles and tableware to small furniture and lighting that together create the individual atmosphere of our living and working spaces. We mainly stock products from Dutch and Danish


design companies but the range is sourced from a number of countries, including many small design companies in the UK, whose product styling fits the Huus branding.


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