Nicky Kinnaird – the woman who put the NK into Space NK – believes customers are always searching for the “holy grail of skincare”, which not only keeps her in business, but also means she is always looking for the next big thing.
“We get involved with brands much earlier in the development process now we are an established retailer and products are constantly innovating,” she says. “As a nation we have all got into the mindset of working at an increasingly frenetic pace, so we need down time and products to look after ourselves.”
This philosophy has helped Space NK grow to a 63-store chain in the UK and to debut in the US with two standalone stores and concessions in nine Bloomingdale’s. But for Belfast-born Kinnaird, Space NK’s success was borne of a desire for choice and service.
“Back in the early 1990s, the lack of mirrors and bad lighting in department stores was unbelievable,” she says. “At the time beauty was only sold in these department stores that had monobrand counters, or at the other extreme there were the high street chemists, but they didn’t offer any special advice.”
Kinnaird wanted to revolutionise beauty and her big break came when she was offered the opportunity to open her dream store. The precursor to what we know today as Space NK was a 4,500 sq ft lifestyle store in the Thomas Neal Centre in Covent Garden.
It was not something she had planned though. She was all set to join the family surveying firm Alexander Kinnaird & Sons in Belfast after completing a degree in estate management at Reading University, but the draw of London proved too tempting. “I thought I would work in London for three to five years training and then go back to the fold but I got hooked on all the exciting retail developments that were happening in London at that time,” she explains.
She joined Debenham, Tewson & Chinnock (now DTZ) as a trainee in 1985 and worked on the development of new shopping areas such as Covent Garden and St Christopher’s Place, but she wanted to be involved in more than just finding properties.
Her love of retail took her to consultancy Retail Plan in 1990, which she says “allowed me to work with brands that had lost their way and wanted to be reincarnated, and with retailers looking at how best to merchandise their stores”.
Her dream store was born when Langbourn Properties, which was developing the Thomas Neal Centre, offered to back her if she wanted to create an anchor store for the building. The store comprised designer fashion, accessories and beauty. “Shoppers wouldn’t dream of dressing top-to-toe in one brand so I offered a mixture of innovative brands,” she says.
After three years of “working until midnight more than I’d like to remember”, Kinnaird decided something had to give and as the beauty section was performing “off the scale”, it was that area she took forward.
The Space NK as we know it was created in 1996 and she hasn’t looked back. While she sold 90 per cent of the company to private equity firm Manzanita Capital last year, she is still heavily involved with the business and splits her time between London and New York to make sure everything is performing well.
Kinnaird says her passion for beauty stems from her mother and as a child she spent three months of each year in Spain, where the “smell of fresh citrus” inspired her to launch Space NK’s signature fragrance Laughter.
Her love of travelling has meant she has been able to capitalise on the strengths of different countries. She believes France is the expert for fragrance, skincare is Japan or the US and aromatherapy is the UK. “I was so frustrated that there were all these wonderful innovations all over the world and the UK wasn’t seeing any of it,” she says. “So each time I go to a different country I try to find out what the latest ideas are.”
Kinnaird remains committed to seeking out innovative brands and expanding across Space NK’s two markets. While the US is as yet a fledgling market, in the UK she says the store portfolio could grow by 50 per cent. And with the nation’s ongoing quest to stay younger, there should be plenty of space for growth.
Under the skin
Age: 43
Lives: Kensington
Family: long-term partner
Likes: tennis, gym, museums, travelling
CAREER HISTORY
1996: first Space NK apothecary store opened in Covent Garden
1993: first Space NK lifestyle store opened in Thomas Neal Centre
1990: consultant, Retail Plan
1985: chartered surveyor, Debenham, Tewson & Chinnock
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