BATH LIFE BUSINESS CLUB
ROSSITERS
SPONSORED BY:
BUSINESS INSIDER
Peter and Ann-Marie prepare to answer the Bath Life Business Club questions
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t’s a favourite Bath department store with five floors of awardwinning, design-led, ever-evolving necessities, accessories and luxuries – from Matthew Williamson sofas and gorgeous gifts to pet accessories, linen, china and tableware. The Bath Life Business Club recently caught up with Rossiters’ owners – husband and wife team, Peter and Ann-Marie James, over lunch at The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa to get the lowdown on their fascinating story and how they’ve managed to keep their Broad Street store, which was originally founded in 1961 by Anne and Michael Rossiter, at the heart of Bath’s indie retail scene… In the beginning Peter: The same day I was due to have corned beef and mash with my mother, something appeared on my desk inviting me to pitch for Rossiters. Turns out it was her favourite store and she insisted I went for it. Several other companies were in talks for it including the General Trading Store and Liberty. I visited the shop, bought a Dualit toaster from a lovely lady called Elaine, who is still with us, and then bought the store in 1999. Ann-Marie: After university, I was working for Marks & Spencers as a buyer, and was eventually responsible for 25 per cent of their womenswear range. I was offered the directorship of one of their biggest manufacturers, which gave me an incredible insight into the world of suppliers, keeping a factory filled and also the fashion industry. When I was pregnant with our second child and ready to do something which involved a little less commuting and long distance travel, Peter suggested I help him run this department store called Rossiters he’d just bought. I said I’d do it for two years – 16 years later I’m still there, and I absolutely love it. About the shop… P: Bath is a good place to trade and we are a Bath-centric business. We are amazed and delighted at how our sales have held up, both our furniture and the ground floor accessories, 112 I BATH LIFE I www.mediaclash.co.uk
PHOTO BY DERRYN VRANCH
The Bath Life Business Club caught up with Rossiters owners, husband and wife team, Peter and Ann-Marie James, over lunch at The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa
in the face of increasing competition from the internet and other bricks and mortar retailers. AM: You could spend Saturday mornings trawling online but that does become a bit joyless. Rossiters is a destination store – people come because Bath’s a wonderful place to spend a day and Rossiters is somewhere you can visit with friends or family and enjoy the pleasure of shopping together for fun. The Rossiters shoppers P: Anecdotally, they are 90 per cent women except when it’s for furniture, and then it’s mainly couples. 80 per cent come from within a 25-minute drive time. Our trade tends not to be touristy but we do see a lot of the UK minibreakers, who are in a relaxed purchasing mood. Christmas time AM: As with more and more retailers, the last three months of the year are critical. We do 49 per cent of our business on the ground floor in those eight to nine weeks. P: It would be easy to see the Bath Christmas market as our competition. However, it brings huge volumes of visitors and we definitely see an uplift in sales as many of those visiting make a point of visiting our store too. The internet effect P: The core of what we are really about is merchandise in a lovely environment with friendly, knowledgeable and down-to-earth staff. We have new things coming in all the time and that is hard to translate into a satisfactory transactional website. We are approaching the issue of a web presence in a more nuanced way. AM: It fascinates me that so many of the businesses ecommerce, which started purely online, and are seemingly, rapidly and very
successfully, growing that way, are looking for a high street presence. And we’ve already got this amazing five-storey store and an expertise in how to create retail theatre in a bricks and mortar environment. It’s so easy to be distracted by what your competitors are doing, when the key is to stay focused on what you do best and your own business goals. Events at Rossiters AM: We have the Rossiters Kitchen Club with guest speakers, chefs and different themes. For us, it’s about making people feel like they are part of your community. Years ago, Rossiters had a coffee shop, and this is something we are considering re-introducing. Finally, on being a husband and wife working team AM: We have both been in corporate life and know how to go into business mode, which means we tend not to have arguments. P: Ann-Marie is the creative side; she’s the core of it, the marketing and the brand. I do the operations, the finance and the property – which translates as I spend most of my time arguing about prices!
FRESH THINKING OVER A FINE LUNCH
The Bath Life Business Club is a select group of senior business people. It features a leading speaker – for example, Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis – and a damn fine two-course lunch. The next meeting is on 28 November 2016 – if you’d like to join, please contact Stephanie Dodd (Stephanie.Dodd@ mediaclash.co.uk). These events sell out quickly, so look out for the emails...
The Bath Life Business Club is sponsored by Bishop Fleming