comment On the board
One year on from his appointment as sales director of Horwood Homewares, Rob Jones shares a progress report of his activities
our resource and support functions across our entire sales and marketing team, and are now looking to work much more collaboratively with our customers across existing and new channels. Regarding product development, we are
looking forward to launching 10+ new product ranges in 2018, and are currently prioritising plans for future launches over the next couple of years. Innovation and choice engages our consumers, so we need to be actively participating in providing it. Export remains a big focus for us. It’s one of
our fastest growing channels and we are prioritising new target markets and relevant product categories to support continued growth within it.
What’s your background? I joined Horwood last February from Miele [the German appliance manufacturer] and I’m looking forward to celebrating a year with the company at this year’s Spring Fair.
How would you describe your first year? Really interesting. I’ve had the opportunity to meet many customers, suppliers and partners - all of whose feedback has been vital in setting our objectives moving forward.
When you joined Horwood, you said customer engagement, product development and export were on your agenda. Can you give an update? I’d say that these three key areas remain at the forefront of our plans. From a customer engagement perspective, we have increased
Recent developments? Our new showroom in Bristol has just opened its doors and we look forward to welcoming as many customers and consumers as possible over the next few months to have a look around, meet the team and see some of the developments we’ve made. We’ve also scaled up our resources within sales & marketing, adding in four new positions over the last six months.
What’s keeping you busy? We head into a very busy Q1 with a focus on NPD launches, Spring Fair and Ambiente. We are also finalising our Q3 and Q4 marketing plans.
What’s new for Spring Fair? Spring Fair provides us with the opportunity to
highlight some of the developments we’ve made across the business. As well as a new look and feel to the stand, we have various product demonstrations taking place, six new ranges, examples of new high quality customer activation and POS that will be available for our customers, a new website to preview, and some exciting new initiatives to discuss.
Monday February 5 2018 THE NATIONAL MOTORCYCLE MUSEUM, BIRMINGHAM
Celebrity chef and TV presenter James Martin will be on Horwood’s stand (9A30-B31) at the Spring Fair on Tuesday February 6
What’s next? We’re looking to further realise a lot of the planning that’s happened over the last 12 months. Overseas, our attendance at some of the
larger international shows will give us the chance to explore the opportunities that new export markets present us. Domestically, we’re aiming to enhance our
in-store activation offering, and launch our new website, which will offer both consumers and customers a much more useful product- centric tool.
Horwood’s new showroom in Bristol
What are the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the housewares industry in 2018? Our industry shares challenges with many other sectors. Footfall on the high street, the squeeze on disposable income, and rapidly changing consumer behaviour will continue to test both retailers and suppliers. It’s essential that we are proactive in communicating with our target consumer, and try to keep ahead of the game.
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January/February 2018
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