Radley’s founder, Australian-born Lowell Harder, started out by selling unusual looking bags she had sourced from India at Camden Market at weekends. She went on to design her own bags and briefcases, which soon came to the attention of the department store chain John Lewis and other retailers.
Twelve years on, Radley has a presence in more than 550 stores across the UK, the US, the Middle East, and a growing e-commerce business.
That ethos of the business is to make beautiful bags that women fall in love with, which boast great craftsmanship, quality materials and offer good value for money.
Sven Gaede, CEO of Radley, said: “We have a retail business which comprises of 23 stand alone stores in the UK. We have around 500 wholesale accounts with retailers such as John Lewis, House of Fraser and Debenhams, as well as a number of regional independents like Fenwick’s. In total we have around 550 doors across our retail presence. We also have a series of outlet stores across the UK.
"In the US we have a retail store, an ecommerce site and a wholesale presence predominantly in Lord & Taylor in all 46 of their doors and have done for the last couple of years. This market continues to grow well for us.
“Beyond the US we have also started to look at other markets. We believe the Far East offers a number of opportunities for us to grow the brand.
“We have signed a franchise agreement in the Middle East to open stores, predominantly in the UAE, and we are talking to partners in Japan and South Korea to try and establish a distribution platform in those two markets. We are also exploring China as an opportunity. I suspect that in the next 12-18 months we will have a presence in all those markets.
“The far eastern markets are dominated by department stores so our presence is likely to be shop-in-shop type environments within existing department stores. In the UK, there are certainly geographic pockets which we would like to fill in.”
Radley also has a small wholesale presence in Germany and Russia but Gaede said the European market is very competitive, particularly on leather products, so the brand’s real focus is on trying to defend its title as number one handbag brand in the UK.
“Over the last 12 months we have had a big push in opening retail stores and we have opened 10 in the UK. We accelerated our programme because the market allowed us to get some good real estate deals in what is a difficult real estate market.
For the full article, please see the April 2011 issue.
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