Celebrating its 40th anniversary next year, there have been some major changes afoot at . On a recent trip to Australia, we sat down with Molton Brown’s vice-president of global retail sales Paul Currie to discover the latest product developments, planned store changes and why the brand is being given a shake-up.
I’ve heard Molton Brown are launching a few new products this year…
This year is the year of new products! For the last couple of years, the business has not really had a lot of new product development. This year in August, we’re having a whole new range of hair care products for performance. We’ll have hair care that deals with fine, coloured and dull hair – a whole series of products that will be targeted at different hair types but still containing the beautiful fragrances and luxurious feel of Molton Brown.
Is there set to be any fragrance launches?
Last year we launched our fine fragrance collection – they’ve been tremendously successful. We’re introducing a limited edition fragrance called Londinium in July for when the Olympics are on. Then we have a really fabulous gift range for Christmas. It will be combinations of fragrance stories in beautiful boxes, which are a complete gift.
Are there plans for future product development?
Next year we have continuous development going all the way through. What we’re looking for in the future is how we can extend our product range to complete the whole cocoon. It’s looking at how we can do range extensions.
Is the store look of Molton Brown set to go through any changes?
One of our key partners is David Jones. We’ve been doing business with David Jones for many years, and what we’re keen to do is create a new shop fit inside David Jones. Subject to agreement with David Jones, we’re going to put a brand new shop fit into the stores, which will be based on a brand new concept store we’re putting into Selfridges in London. It looks beautiful, it makes the brand look special, it is competitive in terms of its image and it denotes everything that is part of our brand DNA – look, colour, fragrance and premium. That will hopefully happen in the first quarter of 2013.
You just recently launched an online store in Australia. Was this part of the brand’s development plans?
You’ve got the flagship, you’ve got the department store in 27 locations, you’ve got the .com business, you’ve got the hotel business. It then starts hopefully to become a much more meaningful business.
Do you have any personal goals for the brand?
The most exciting thing is the product development and engaging with customers. I’ve been with the brand seven months and my plan was to reinvigorate it. I feel that I can start to see the results. We’re seeing double-digit increases year-on-year. For me, it’s building on what the brand represents and focusing on doing less things but much better. I want every store to look fabulous.
