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Retailer Face To Face
Onto A Winner The term ‘mooch’ conjures up the idea of a slow, relaxed, goal-less loiter. However, there has been nothing slow about the strategic expansion and impressive achievements of Northamptonshire-based gift and card retail mini group of the same name. Fresh from winning a Retas’ award (only a few weeks after having been feted with a trophy at The Greats gift retailer awards too), PG rushed to catch up with Rachel and Paul Roberts, Mooch’s co-owners, to find out more about life in the fast lane.
It was a fruitless search for a gift for a friend that was to be the catalyst for husband and wife duo Rachel and Paul Roberts to set up an online shop three years ago that led swiftly onto the opening of their four gift and card shops, Mooch in Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire in quick succession over the last couple of years. While relatively new to the card and gift sector, Rachel and Paul not only have bags of retail experience between them, but are also used to working together, having met (18 years ago) when they were both employed by the Dixons retail group. And certainly their rapid expansion and establishment of their own flavour of gift and card retailing has earned them the respect of the trade and delight from their customers, as reflected in Mooch winning The Retas’ Best Non-Specialist Independent Retailer of Greeting Cards South award for its greeting card approach as well as Independent Gift Retailer of the Year - Best Newcomer Midlands, North and Scotland in The Greats gift retailer awards (sister awards to The Retas). Sharing some of the background, Paul explained that it was during a six month sabbatical from their busy consulting jobs that they took the plunge to set up the 78
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
online gift shop and then made the move into bricks and mortar. “Rachel had ‘the itch’ for a while, and so we did some local gift fairs and markets to test the water.” The learnings from these, as well as from their online gift store, gave them more than ample encouragement to look for retail premises. “Having spent the previous 15 years as colleagues and store managers for Dixons, and before that working in retail as Top: Rachel and Paul Roberts (centre) were delight to win a Retas award in July. The trophy was presented by Steve Baker, sales and marketing director of Pigment, sponsor of the category, with host Pippa Evans happy to join in the celebrations. Above left: Mooch on St Giles Street was the first shop Rachel and Paul Roberts opened. Above: While all four Mooch shops look slightly different, they all have a similar feel of friendliness and offering a sense of discovery for shoppers. Left: The interiors of the Mooch shops encourage shoppers to browse.
teenagers, we had been through every facet of retail, so felt we knew the ropes,” added Paul. However, finding premises was challenging. “Despite having retail in our blood, managing agents dismissed us because we had no history to fall back on,” Rachel explains. “The shop we eventually ended up with on St Giles Street was our third choice, but it couldn’t have worked out better as there is lots more space on the first