FEATURE
The retail evolution The high street retail landscape has been plagued with closures, CVAs, takeovers and restructuring processes but there’s one Company Director who might just have the answer to inject some vibrancy into town shopping and that’s Adam Finlay, third generation of the Douglas & Grahame fashion firm.
Adam Finlay, Company Director.
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ouglas & Grahame has been a respected name in men’s clothing in Ireland and the UK since the 1920s when it was a supplier of quality fabrics to the tailoring trade. Founded by Charles Douglas and Hugh Grahame in Belfast city centre, Adam’s grandfather Dixie Finlay joined in the 1940s and started the company on the journey to becoming a supplier of leading fashion brands when he began producing ready-made suits for a new generation of gentlemen’s outfitter. Dixie eventually took over the firm in the 60s.
It’s gone on to become a multimillion-pound company selling its brands to multiple retailers and independents with one store to a collection of units. Among its brands are the recognisably sharp Remus Uomo, Douglas, Daniel Grahame and boyswear and schoolwear label 1880 Club. “The core of the business is done through independent stockists across the different brands we offer. That’s 80-90% of our business and that has been built over a generation,” begins Adam when describing that successful business structure.
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Douglas & Grahame has around 350 stockists in the UK and Ireland who come to buy at the company’s HQ in Carrickfergus, UK Sales Office in the English Midlands or premium showrooms in Dublin, London or Glasgow. It also has four Remus Uomo stores that it owns as well as two stores operated as franchises with trusted stockist partners. Adam refers to those as the firm’s very own “retail footprint”. It’s a format of trading that has served the company well. Staying loyal to its wholesale customer is at the heart of what Douglas & Grahame does, so much so that when it came to e-commerce, the company put its clients at the forefront and took on the internet market ‘sensitively’. “It’s a delicate exercise going direct to consumer,” admits Adam who was instrumental in setting up an online shopping site for Remus Uomo five years ago. “If we had gone into e-commerce too quickly it would’ve been a threat to our retailers but we understand that for a brand to be taken seriously we needed to offer it. We have been careful not to be too aggressive and so it’s grown very organically. Today it is two to three per cent of our business and we are content with that because it has grown 50% year on year.” The growth of online shopping has been one of the biggest contributors to changing consumer trends in recent years. Many retail professionals say it is one of the most prominent challenges for bricks and mortar stores. And according to the Centre for Retail Research, since the recession, there have been 32 retailers forced to shut, most of which are in the multiple retailing sector. Among those names were BHS to House of Fraser and beyond fashion, stores including Maplin, HMV and Poundworld. In recent weeks Paperchase announced it would downsize its portfolio. Adam is very much in tune with the peaks and troughs on the high street and he believes that the traditional retail model our high streets are familiar with is no longer cutting it. He anticipates that the brands who innovate and offer an experience will thrive and keep the physical shopping experience alive. “We are coming into a very interesting time of change in the next few years when the high street will hit a crisis point that some of the big players won’t stave off,” he warns. “It won’t die because there are brands