Background about the business and challenge:
David Beddle (the founder/owner of Bath & Wick) was a full-time chef when he spotted a gap in the market for handmade, eco-friendly bath products with high quality ingredients and vibrant colours.
He had tons of passion and confidence that this was a product offering people wanted, but no retailing experience or training. A common story for high street startups.
Bath & Wick initially launched as an online store only. Early customers loved their products, but they felt crowded out by more generic offerings online and found it hard to profitably get in front of enough potential customers.
They wanted a high street or shopping centre space to trade from, but the high costs and long-term commitments for space, as well as the steep learning curve required, made this feel unviable.
Our Work Together with Bath & Wick
We engaged with Bath & Wick in 2019 to help them expand their offering into local shopping centres. We secured a rent-free trial period in the mall area of The Swan Shopping Centre in Eastleigh that was successful for Bath & Wick and gave them the confidence to commit to a rental agreement. We helped broker a flexible licence agreement at a sustainable level between Bath & Wick and the centre. We provided Bath & Wick with a range of personalised support ranging from branding to product positioning, merchandising, ecommerce, social media and grant funding; targeting the support on identified gaps in their skills and capabilities. We caught-up with David regularly to ensure his plan was progressing and to discuss new opportunities for the business. We helped his business expand into a new shopping centre (Marlands in Southampton) and have been supporting David with making a longer term lease commitment for a larger unit in that centre.
Bath & Wick Today
Bath & Wick not only survived the Covid-19 lockdowns but is now expanding quickly. They are still trading in The Swan Centre, they have also opened in the Marlands Centre (Southampton), and they are now taking a 5 year lease on a larger unit. Their online business has also been growing positively and we are exploring further expansion plans together.
“It’s been a whirlwind couple of years for us and for everyone in retail. For us we’re now in a great position with growing sales and lots of optimism. This initiative has been incredibly beneficial and is without doubt one of the key reasons we’ve been able to grow in this way in the past few years. The team has been there throughout and during the first lockdown even guided us with obtaining grants to keep the business running. Thanks for all the help.”
“Thanks to the Flourish team with their assistance throughout the process. We couldn't have done it without them. Can't recommend these guys enough”
David Beadle - Founder Bath & Wick.
