How Cath Kidston lured in high-powered women with a passion for polka dots as sales break £100m

How Cath Kidston lured in high-powered women with a passion for polka dots

Many of us spend our days staring at computer screens, but sipping coffee at our desks out of a flower-sprigged mug is bizarrely grounding, says entrepreneur Josephine Fairley, who explains the global phenomenon of Cath Kidston as sales break £100m.

Cath Kidston has admitted that she is far from being a domestic goddess in her own home.  Photo: REX FEATURES

By Josephine Fairley

12:59PM BST 14 Aug 2013

So: just in time for her brand’s 20th birthday, Cath Kidston’s sales have broken through the £100m mark – with earnings (before interest, taxes etc) topping £21 million. Wow. This is a feat for any brand. But how has a relatively shy, seriously self-effacing (not to mention deceptively scatty-seeming, when you meet her in the flesh) woman grown her brand from a single store in then-down-at-heel Notting Hill into a global brand? Because it isn’t just Middle England which loves Cath Kidston MBE: sales are booming in Asia, too. As well as a flagship store in London’s Piccadilly, a major store is scheduled to open in Shanghai before the end of the year.Of course, the brand no longer belongs exclusively to Cath: shesold a controlling stake to private equity group TA Associates in 2010. But Cath remains in the vital role of creative director, and clearly still has the knack of tapping into what many women want: a comforting, nostalgic style which harks back to a more innocent time – and is seriously feminine. (There’s barely an item in the Cath Kidston range which makes a nod to masculinity, if you don’t count her late dog Stanley, and the cowboys and Indians print in her fabric collection.)

It’s a love-it-or-hate-it brand, though: I know many men who whinge about the Cath Kidston roses garlanding their kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms. Yet also I know many high-powered women with a passion for the brand, happy to slip their laptop inside a polka dot Cath Kidston case, and carry it to board meetings. For others, it’s more of a guilty pleasure reserved for at-home enjoyment.

Personally, I sit on the side of the fans – and in fact, her business has a small but not insignificant role in the success of Green & Black’s. Every single night after work, my husband/ business partner and I would walk the streets of Notting Hill, downloading our day – brainstorming, discussing staff issues and coming up with ideas for new chocolate deliciousness. In 1993, a little store opened on our ‘beat’, selling vintage wallpaper and fabrics, and the sort of cleaned-up car boot sale finds many women who were too busy/ prissy to go to car boot sales lusted after. And we would pause on that evening walk, when I all but licked the window of this shop, hugely admiring of Miss Kidston’s ‘brand identity’ – which she nailed, from day one.

There are countless women up and down the land (and other lands) who can spot a Cath Kidston oilcloth tote at 100 paces – which actually puts her up there (if not ahead of, in terms of sheer numbers) the Guccis and the Pradas of this world. And with imitation – or rather, fakery – being the sincerest, as well as the most annoying form of flattery, it’s interesting to see faux Cath Kidston designs now on sale in street markets. I’m sure her lawyers are kept pretty busy, on that front. And a good thing, too.

A key factor in the success, I think, is that Cath Kidston helps soften the hard edges of a techie world. We spend our days staring at screens, but sipping coffee at our desks out of a flower-sprigged mug is bizarrely grounding. Personally, I don’t want to live in a Blade Runner world, even while enjoying fibre-optic high-speed broadband – and Cath Kidston, with her finger on the pulse, gets that.

Now, speaking selfishly, I was a little triste when her empire expanded beyond Clarendon Cross: we all like our ‘secret discoveries’. But at the same time, I have been hugely admiring of how she’s stayed utterly, 100pc true to her brand, its strong and wholesome values, and her signature style. Just as an aside, I was able to tell her that, ahem, while we were lined up to meet The Queen one day. As one is.

Hitting £100 million a year is a fantastic achievement, and I personally will be helping nudge Cath’s sales even higher by celebrating with a ‘birthday story multi-cotton tote’, at £25 (£25! For a cotton bag!) from her forthcoming collection, which literally illustrates her growth from that little shop to global near-domination. The bag’s final handwritten tag-line reads: ‘As the home of modern vintage, we still have the same vision as when we began: to make cheerful, practical products that brighten up your life’. As ‘brand essences’ go, it’s crystal-clear – and any business could learn from that clarity.

Cath Kidston, long may you flourish. Here’s to the first billion pounds, I say.