New series: Best & Worst of Times
In this new series, we ask leading retailers a couple of very simple but also challenging questions. What are the best decisions they’ve made and what are the worst – or toughest – decisions they’ve made?
Up first is Andrew Xeni, founder and chief executive of Fabacus and founder and chairman of Nobody’s Child.
Subscribe to TRBWhat are the three best decisions you’ve made during your career in retail?
Pursue responsible fashion – our early ambition to deliver ethical, responsible and affordable fashion was a big commercial commitment and undertaking, whereby we made the move way before the trend or regulations. We believed this would give us a clear point of differentiation and longer-term prospects, given the growing consumer demands and trends.
Partner with Marks & Spencer – the strategic decision to partner with M&S and launch on its website as the first third-party brand, before their transformation was successful, was primarily based on trust in their leadership to deliver the necessary change. That transpired to be the perfect platform for our growth, given their incredible reach and store footprint.
Hire our chief executive of Nobody’s Child, Jody Plows – bringing in a passionate and committed leader that happens to be a solid merchandiser with an eye for product has proven to be a successful partnership. Today, Jody leads a team of 130-plus people and has managed to drive growth in all channels and markets.
What are the three worst/toughest decisions you’ve made during your career in retail?
Investing heavily and prematurely in our infrastructure (warehouse etcetera) and platform, anticipating huge organic traction. We overcooked it, underestimating how tough the market was and the respective costs associated with it.
Invested in an out of home (OOH) marketing campaign too early in our journey that yielded a negligible return on investment (ROI) at the time, given we were a nascent and digital-first business.
We had to mothball the business and furlough everybody to navigate the challenges of the pandemic and survive, right on the cusp of progressing the formalities with M&S too. This was very tough and disheartening, and hard to recover from, but we simply didn’t have the capital to weather the storm.
