Retail Week's 25th anniversary: Ted Baker celebrates 25 years in retail

Ted Baker boss Ray Kelvin is not your average chief executive. Famous for hiding his face in pictures and demanding press-ups from journalists who are late to appointments, the Ted Baker founder’s idiosyncratic character is mirrored by an astute business mind.

Kelvin founded and built the Ted Baker brand, which has become a great British success story. But he admits he didn’t see his success coming. “I failed my maths O-level and now I’ve got a professorship, a doctorship and a CBE.

I’ve got more titles than Amazon,” he quips.

Under Kelvin’s quirky leadership, jokes and his belief in being a “hugger and a lover” lies a sharp businessman who has developed a global business that now generates pre-tax profits of £29m. That’s no mean feat in a fashion sector
that has become increasingly competitive.

Kelvin describes Ted Baker as “a very nice little brand”, but it’s not so little any more. In the year to January Ted, which trades as a retailer, wholesaler and licensing business, generated group sales up 18% to £255m and now has stores in 35 countries.

Personality woven in

It wasn’t always this way. When Kelvin first came up with the idea, he didn’t want to name the brand after himself for fear he would always be known as Ray Kelvin The Bankrupt if it collapsed. So he created an alter ego, Ted Baker, whose personality is sewn into every aspect of the brand from marketing to the design of product - Kelvin created a collection based on his love of fly fishing last year - to the stores, which are all unique.

Kelvin opened the first Ted Baker store in 1988, and recalls that time as the most difficult period in the company’s history. “We couldn’t pay the bills, we couldn’t pay the wages,” he says. “We really struggled. I was financing the
business with my own cash and it was limited.”

The first store opened in Glasgow, primarily selling men’s shirts which he designed himself despite not having had any formal training.

Kelvin says: “For the first seven or eight years of building the business it was really difficult. I couldn’t let myself get too close to people and I had to make a lot of tough decisions.

“It was very difficult at times and as soon as we got past the post and started doing really well and started making enough money I decided to become what I’m about - that’s being a hugger and a lover and not a shouter and a screamer,” he says.

Catching the trend

It was in the 1990s when acid house music became popular that Ted Baker really took off. The brightly coloured shirts flew off the hangers as young male shoppers sought out clothes that made a statement - Ted Baker fitted the bill.

“We hit the nail on the head with a few winning fabrications in shirts and we grew the business on the back of the money we made out of that,” says Kelvin simply.

His focus on quality and detail and sense of humour was a winning formula. The first stores even provided a laundry service for every shirt bought.

Since those early days of success, Ted Baker’s journey has been a whirlwind. “Then we went into womenswear and that has been a fantastic success in America, where we have 15 shops and quite a large business in the States where we do wholesale and licensing. Now we’re in 30 countries around the world.”

As Kelvin grew the business he opened stores in Manchester and Nottingham and launched the retailer’s first London store in Covent Garden in 1990. Also in that year he bought out backers the family owned Goldberg & Sons department store business where he had been an executive. By 1993 Ted Baker was a privately owned company.

More stores followed and in 1994 Ted Baker launched a wholesale business in the UK.

Then in 1997 Kelvin made the decision to take Ted Baker public, trading as the ‘No Ordinary Designer Label Limited’, although he retains a substantial stake.

He says: “We wanted to grow.

I had all my wealth tied into the business and I wanted to secure the family. I had two young boys at the time and I wanted to also have the ability to reward people in the business and that is quite easy to do as a public company.”

Kelvin puts much of the business’ success down to his experienced team, many of whom have stuck with him since the beginning. Some staff are members of Kelvin’s family. But despite the wealth of experience, Kelvin sounds slightly surprised when he speaks of how floating the company went “very well”.

He says he is aware of how he was viewed by potential investors, despite building a business from scratch.

“People didn’t think I would cope with it because I don’t fit the mould of a corporate type of individual but actually I cope with it very well,” he says.

“I’m quite shy socially, funnily enough. I’m quite a big personality within the business but outside it I don’t particularly like the high life. But the public arena I have handled quite well because I enjoy talking about the business.”

After the IPO, Ted Baker opened its first US store in New York in 1998, as well as launching a website.

Since 2000 Ted Baker has continued growing steadily, launching more licensed ranges in fragrances, watches and eyewear.

Further international stores followed in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Greece and France as well as the US. And the UK grew too, with the most notable opening coming in Regent Street in 2004.

Last year Ted Baker launched stores in Toronto, Shanghai and in Fifth Avenue, New York. The retailer has also been adding to its barber shops - Ted’s Grooming Rooms - as well as opening standalone accessories stores.

Although Ted Baker has moved on from acid house shirts, its success is still rooted in its own distinct signature style which Kelvin, who is a stickler for detail, is still involved in helping to design.

Kelvin retains his commitment to product and value for money for “everyday guys and girls”. He says Ted Baker provides its customers with high-quality products for reasonable prices.

“We always set out our stool to be twice the product at half the price,” he explains. “I think the consumer sees that and I think now we’ve got much better.

“I think other products have got so expensive we’re actually three times the product at a third of the price.”

Quick recovery

That strategy helped protect the retailer’s sales as the economy took a dive in 2008. Pre-tax profits did slip slightly then - the only drop in more than 10 years - but retail sales remained strong and the brand recovered quickly.

Kelvin now aims to build in the markets where the brand already has a foothold. “We have a lot [of countries] that we’re selling into, we’ve just got to now develop that and gain traction,” he explains.

And 57-year-old Kelvin has no plans to retire. “I am staying until they carry me out dribbling,” he laughs. In fact, he wants to build Ted Baker into a £1bn business within the next five years.

“You could never set out and envisage that it would grow and do as nicely as it has,” he says. “You do the best and hope for the best.

“There are things that we could always do better and we strive every day to do today better than yesterday.

Generally speaking we’re really pleased with the way things have shaped out.”

But Kelvin reveals: “I wouldn’t do it now. People asked me how it started and I don’t really know. I just worked and worked and worked. It is hard for the kids to do it now. The banks are not helpful.”

It’s easy for an established brand to falter, but Ted Baker continues to lead the way. Kelvin and his business look well placed to be impressing customers and the market for 25 years to come.