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Lesser & Pavey: 50th Anniversary
Years Young Having started life as a china, glass and collectables importer in 1971, Lesser & Pavey has gone on to become among the biggest, best known and most successful suppliers in the gift and homewares industry. So how is the company - which prides itself on offering high end quality, value for money products with mass appeal - celebrating its milestone 50th anniversary in 2021? How has it evolved over five decades and what’s going to be new for Spring/Summer 2021? These were just some of the question PG&H put to Lesser & Pavey’s managing director Julian Hunt, and fellow director Jonny Greves, as the company gets ready to take confident strides into its sixth decade. There are only a handful of companies in the gift industry today that can boast 50 years of continuous trading, supplying the industry with an ever changing variety of gifts and homewares. It therefore comes as no surprise that Lesser & Pavey is making the most of its 50 year heritage. There’s a striking and proud new ‘50 years’ logo of course, and hopefully at some time in the not too distant future, the opportunity to celebrate with customers and industry friends. “We had all sorts of celebrations planned for February’s Spring Fair had the show been able to go ahead,” points out Julian. Founded in 1971 by chairman Ronnie Pavey, in the early years, Lesser & Pavey was very much a china and glass importer sourcing the company’s products from Europe. By the mid ‘70s, the entrepreneurial Ronnie had established ‘The Leonardo Collection’, a brand synonymous with Lesser & Pavey that has become a household name, renowned worldwide.
At the time, products were very traditional, sourced from many different European countries: Italy, Portugal, Romania and Poland to mention a few. And in addition to sourcing from Europe, there were now regular trips to source
Lesser & Pavey’s 5 Best Sellers l l l l l
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The Leonardo Collection’s Little Nook: original, collectable animal figures The Leonardo Collection/Alberon porcelain dolls Above: Desire aroma lamps William Morris tableware and humidifiers are a huge selling product area. Desire home fragrancing and aroma lamps Right: Little Stars melamine Christmas feeding sets.
Progressive Gifts & Home Worldwide
Above: Julian Hunt (left) and Jonny Greves.
products from the Far East - initially from Japan, Korea and Taiwan, but before long, directly from China, where Ronnie was undoubtedly a leading pioneer. However, while sourcing from the Far East was inevitably a game changer, it was also a pivotal moment for the company in other ways. “From the very first trips, strong relationships were forged with factories who began developing exclusive product for Lesser & Pavey,” explains Julian. “In fact, having such strong relationships with our factories has certainly helped us during the pandemic. We were able to work closely with our suppliers to keep shipments flowing and supply on time to meet the very significant volumes of products we have sold. It also helped us with developing new products for the second half of the year and early 2021. Without doubt we have sold and developed even more new items than in a normal year, all of which have been