Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
In an exclusive interview with HousewaresLive.net, Typhoon Housewares chairman Peter Battersby has explained how he intends that a withdrawal from non-core product areas and a new focus on stock will return the company to “a successful business model”.
“We’ve worked through a turbulent year,” he admitted, “and in order to return to a sound and successful business model, we’ve had to make significant changes, some of which have required us to make some tough decisions.
“However, two things that have been at the forefront of our minds have been first and foremost to support our customers with stock of successful product ranges that are available for them to sell with confidence.
“Secondly, we want to return to our core competency of developing innovative Typhoon-branded products in our tried and tested markets. We’ve always been a destination brand for many in terms of our innovation with colour, design and products, but latterly this has involved a dilution of our efforts into niche markets, which has been to the detriment of our core strength – and the Typhoon brand.”
He said it was imperative that the message the company communicated to customers was clear, concise and consistent. Therefore: “2010 will see the roll-out of a complete rebranding for Typhoon that will bring a more cohesive look for our products and a greater focus on the Typhoon brand.
“This will be showcased at our international launch at Ambiente in February. 2010 will also see us introduce new products into half of our core areas. Amongst this there will be new scales launched next year.”
At the same time, the company will be withdrawing from markets that are not core competencies for Typhoon, Battersby said.
“This will mean that we’ll no longer distribute the up-market range of GreenPan products in 2010. This hasn’t been as successful as we’d hoped or anticipated.”
He went on: “Part of getting back to our ‘roots’ meant we had to make some difficult choices and also recognise and learn from some of our less favourable decisions in the past. We’ve had to slim down the business substantially, restructure it, and reinvest in stocks for our customers. All of this has been extremely difficult, takes time, and we recognise we’re now well into a period of substantial transition. However, new stocks are arriving almost weekly from now until spring and we’ll be starting the new year with a bulging order book.”
Battersby said that a new senior management team was now also in place at Typhoon, which recently saw the departure of managing director Chris Stevens. Anis Asghar is CEO, Roger Baker finance director and Andrew Geddes sales director.
