comment comment PETER DUNNEManaging Director & Founder of CellarDine at Basingstoke in Hampshire On The Board


patented products to create our own identity, which was a huge learning curve.Working with China 21 years ago is nothing like what it is today.Wemademistakes back then but, with our own office now set up in Hong Kong, we are more experienced and are looking to improve all the tim e.


What’s’s your career background? I spent several years in retail aft


fter I left ft school,


working at [department store groups] Army & Navy and Debenhams, attendingmanagement training courses.


My retail background consisted of junior buyership roles,merchandise planning, visual displays and supplier relationships leading to storemanagement. Storemanagement departments included camping & outdoor leisure,men’s and women’s fashion,


,


housewares, toys and small electrical. I also attended night school to undertake business studies courses. Thereaft


we started with just one I then decided to set u


again with just one product - with a view to creating a business off ering innovation and a point of difference.


I’ve always had a passion for creating something genuinely innovative. It always seems amore challenging path but I’mgrateful for the support ofmy customers.


Tell us about CellarDine.


CellarDine was set up in 1999 with just one product: the Thermau Rouge red wine warmer – a patented ‘sleeve’ which gently warms red wine to the ideal servin g temperature inminutes. It was the first of its kind and since its launch, we have sold over 2.2million, which has helped me to create and develop additional new products around the world of wine.


As a start-up business in 1999 we had no brand or product to speak of, and we have worked hard with themedia to build our brand ur retail partners and


UK in a very old British L I spentmany hours dr distributors at every opp and profile to promote o


iving up and down the ortunity.


eylandMontego


chasing sales and undertaking demonstrations and staff training.Many of those customers today remindme of those initial visits with great fondness.


Having distributed other people’s products in the past, I was determin ed to develop our own


18 | housewaresl livive.net fter I spent 10 years at VacuVin where


p CellarDine in 1999 - product.


CellarDine is not about competing with the other supplier brands in our category. I have absolutely no interest in thatmindset. As a family business we have to think outside the box and look to create innovation in terms of product, shopping experience, quality and value formoney.


I want our customers - both retailers and consumers - to feel part of what we do and be involved in our product creation, because without their support and co-operation we would not be here in the first place .


“I’ve always had a passion for


“I’v always had a passion for


creating something genuinely innovative”


creating something genuinely inno ativ


What’s’s your working week like?


At themoment, I’min themiddle of a US tour travelling to New York, Chicago, Boston, Seattle and San Francisco,meeting key customers, distributors andmedia groups to expand our business (it sounds farmore glamorous than it actually is!).


Likemost business owners, I don’t work traditional hours. Days consist of creating and co-ordinating new artwork/product, tooling sign off, financial planning, production budgets, retail range reviews, socialmedia support for customers, patent applications and


improvements to how we support our retail customers with incentive programmes.


What’s’s keeping you busy? .


I’mworking with our teamto redesign our website The current one is terribly outdated and our newmodel will be developed to


specifically help consumers be directed to retail stockists,making it easier to purchase our products.We are not a retailer.We design and make product to service our retail customers.


• HousewaresLive.net HousewaresLive.net twitter • /H That’s our prime goal.


I’malso in themidst of completing our new generic packaging look across the rest of our range, to offer a complete story. This is taking a little longer than it should do!


What’s’s on your agenda ?


I care passionately about developing products that are genuin we have a long need to be.


way to go to get to where we ely innovative, and I still feel


I’mworking on a new itemthat I started several years ago that is very exciting but, as withmany innovative products, it takes several years to complete - and some of these ideas never actually get tomarket.


When I’mcreating new products, I try to thin k like a consumer and keep themessage ver y simple. I take the view that if it’s simple and easy to use, you havemore chance of it being a success - if customers have to think twice about the product, they are unlikely to buy. In summary, if the product is simple and easy to use, it’s probably taken years to develop.


Most rewarding aspect of your job?


Creating something new and seeing it through to completion is very satisfying. The positive response fromtrade customers and consume r s to our new products is very rewarding. It encouragesme to invest in the next new line of product.


I feel a real sense of pride seeing our brand sell off the shop floor and when consumers tell me first-hand at our ‘meet themaker’ days how much they value what we do. That tellsme all the years of sacrificemake it worthwhile.


Most challenging aspect of your job?


Factory supply chains can be very difficult if no t set up andmanaged correctly. In our ear ly years we did not have this right.We have certainly learned our lessons and now we have an excellent set-up that works to a specific critical path procedure. No one works hard to get it wrong, so wemake sure all our investments ar e penny and to a date thatmeets requirements.


our customers’ planned to the


During your time in the housewares industry,y, what products have impressed youmos t and why?


Within our product category of barware, it would have to be the Le Creuset Screwpull tabletop corkscrew. It’s classic, stylish,


effortless to use, oozes quality and you can tell it’s been given fine attention to detail. I’ma hug e


twitter.com/Housewaresnewsresnews r.com/Houseware September/October 2019


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