B AT H L I V E S
Q&A
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eal Slateford, who co-founded Lovehoney – a Bath-based sex toy manufacturer – with Richard Longhurst, was invited to meet the Queen, Prince Philip and lots of other royals on 14 July. The reason for their visit was because they had been awarded The Queen’s Award for Enterprise for their international sales at Lovehoney. How did your day at Buckingham Palace go last month? We were honoured to be awarded a Queen’s Award. We said hello to the Queen and thanked her for having us over. We did not discuss the nature of our business with her. We did with The Duke of Edinburgh, though; we told him were in the sexual wellbeing business. He nodded and smiled, swiftly made his excuses and moved on. Richard was just happy to meet a real princess (Princess Michael) as he’s met all the ones at Disneyland already. How does it feel to have the Queen recognise your business? When we were notified that we had won, we said to each other ‘Hang on, do you really think they’ve checked the website properly?!’ We were amazed. Then we went to the pub. It just shows how far the category has moved into the mainstream. When we started in 2002, if you went into Boots, to the family planning section, you would find some condoms and pregnancy testing kits. The market was all about safety. Now all the supermarkets and pharmacies carry some kind of sex toy. It’s all about fun and pleasure. Tell us a little about how and why you founded Lovehoney? Richard and I met at Future Publishing in 2001. He was editing internet magazines and I was working on the websites that went with them. We noticed a lot of ecommerce businesses spending money advertising and we thought this shoppingon-the-internet thing might actually catch on, and decided to set up our own online business. All we had to do was think of something to sell. We narrowed it down to three prospects: kids’ toys, cross stitching and sex toys. Kids toys had too much competition, cross stitching was as dull as you’d imagine, and then we went to an erotica show in London. It was packed, full of happy couples having a whale of a time, and people were throwing money at the traders. It was the perfect thing to sell online; people don’t want to go in stores to buy their bedroom fun. So we put in £4,500 each and off we went...
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Lovehoney’s Neal Slateford (left) and Richard Longhurst celebrating winning The Queen’s Award for Enterprise
NEAL SLATEFORD The co-founder of Bath-based firm Lovehoney talks meeting the Queen, cross stitching and having a number one record in 11 countries How do you feel to have come so far with the business? We now employ 204 people in Bath, we have another dozen in Australia and are about to open an operation in Atlanta in the States. It’s been the fastest 14 years of my life. And the funniest. Best bits so far? When the Fifty Shades of Grey books came out, we both said ‘let’s ask them if they will license us the brand to make sex toys’. Amazingly, they said yes. We’ve now sold over two million units across the range and there are another two movies being released in 2017 and 2018. What’s in the pipeline? More products, more staff, more countries and more fun. We are both very lucky. We have a new TV campaign launching soon, look out for it! Where’s home for you? Charlcombe, on the side of a hill overlooking Bath. It feels like being in the country but it’s five minutes to civilization (well, Larkhall anyway). I travel a lot, and the more I do, the more I realise what a unique and wonderful place Bath is. I was born here and I totally lucked out.
Whenever we have suppliers or guests coming to visit Lovehoney we always take them on a tour of the city’s sites and they are always gobsmacked. It’s beautiful, quirky, creative and walkable, with some great pubs. Favourite café, restaurant, bar and shop in Bath? The Chelsea Café, Yen Sushi, St James Wine Vaults and American Dream Comics. Best view in Bath? The one from the top of Jacob’s Ladder in Alexandra Park is pretty spectacular. What are your hidden talents? I was a DJ for 25 years. I can still rock a party. Surprise us… I made a record with a friend that went to number one in 11 countries [Neal was one half of DNA who did a remix of the Suzanne Vegas hit, Tom’s Diner]. Being on Top of the Pops has to be my finest hour.
www.lovehoney.co.uk