After successfully transforming the fortunes of North-East designer clothing chain Van Mildert, brothers Eric and Cyril Williams have been called in to weave their retail magic on another iconic brand. Business Editor Owen McAteer discovers the secret of their success.

ONE might expect shops selling premium-brand designer clothing to have suffered during the recession but Eric Williams, owner of Van Mildert, based in the Tees Valley, believes nothing could be farther from the truth.

He said: “It is one of the strange things that happens in a recession. We have been a throwaway society but, as in all recessions, when there is less money around people want better value. Better value means clothing has to become more of an investment.

“People do not want something that they can wear two or three times and it’s gone; they want some longevity out of it.

“That is one of the strange dynamics that is happening right across the high street.”

In fact, Van Mildert has expanded during the downturn and intends to grow further this year.

The company, which launched in Durham City in 1996, has been headquartered in Middlesbrough since it was bought by Delima in 2007.

Delima, which last year had turnover in excess of £10m and employs 180 people, is owned by Mr Williams and his brother, Cyril, who have transformed Van Mildert’s fortunes since taking over.

In October, it launched its sixth store, in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, and last month moved to a new 5,500sq ft flagship store in the MetroCentre, in Gateshead, where it already had a branch, its first to house menswear and womenswear collections under one roof.

The firm also has branches in Darlington, York and two in Durham City, as well as a growing online business.

Mr Williams said: “Going back to when we acquired Van Mildert, it was the time when the shoots of the recession were appearing and we acquired a company that needed a rebuild, so we were busy doing that.

“It just happened to be the remedies we put in place at the time and the team we built around us was strong enough to put ourselves ahead of other retailers in the way we were viewing the marketplace we wanted to retail in.”

When asked the formula for success, Mr Williams said traditional retail values were important.

He said: “We focus on what our customer is looking for and try to provide something they want in an environment they would like to visit and buy it in.

“Couple that with what we consider to be great customer service and then you start building up customer loyalty – it is nice to walk into a shop where you are going to be recognised, people understand what you are wearing, what you are looking for and it just works.

“Our staff all know how important every customer is. As firms get bigger and brasher and people want more and more, sometimes they forget how they built it, and you build it on good service and customer loyalty.”

Such has been the brothers’ success that when serial entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter bought the rival Cruise chain from administration last month, he asked the brothers to take over buying for its ten stores, which include two in Newcastle.

In doing so, he described Van Mildert as an “exceptional fashion business”.

Mr Williams said: “Cruise is an iconic brand that for many, many different reasons had lost its way. It was a debt-laden company with a number of issues that need sorting out.

“To do that, you need to have people with some focus and entrepreneurial skills to put into the mix, to say ‘this is the direction we should be taking the business in’.

“Cruise is a wonderful business, but a complicated business, and we are there to try and uncomplicate it and take it back to basics “It is down to customer service, good product availability and a great environment to shop in.”

Mr Williams said he was not concerned about passing on some of the secrets that had made his brand such a success to a potential competitor.

He said: “Cruise is an ally to Van Mildert and vice-versa.

When we walked into Cruise and talked to the buyers, what we found was an inexperienced team and Tom had identified that, hence the tie-up.

“Due to the state of affairs that had gone on in Cruise over the past two to three years, the people that had been longstanding were not there – they had left the business for whatever reason.

“They needed some expertise, some leadership and some focus. That is where we, happily, have come into play.”

The Harrogate shop was the farthest Van Mildert has so far ventured from its North-East base, but Mr Williams said it could expand further.

He said: “We have ambition.

“Hopefully we can add more and spread a bit farther south, get ourselves farther down the country and see if our platform can work as well in different regions.”

There is every reason to believe the brand can be a success nationally given that it won independent retailer of the year at the Drapers Awards in 2009, along with menswear retailer of the year for its MetroCentre shop and young fashion retailer of the year for its Darlington shop, when pitched against rivals from across the country.

Mr Williams said: “You can never really count your chickens. Every opportunity presents its own challenge. As we look at propositions for growth, we assess the market place, we ask is there room for a Van Mildert there and, if so, would it be doing anything different than the potential competition?

“If we found a location where we feel we could have an impact, we would put a strategy together that would enable us, in the future, to place a store there, but it is not that easy to build a business with premium brands – there are all sorts of distribution issues to be overcome.”

What the company has proved with premium brands such as Nudie, Y3 and Belstaff is that those companies want to work with them.

Mr Williams said: “We stock a lot of those brands, and what is important for Van Mildert is that those brands can come in relying on us to retail their product in an environment they feel more than comfortable retailing through.

“In the end, we are really a brand custodian, and the relationship depends on our ability to deliver a good retail environment which will give the brand comfort that if we go to them with a proposition for growth, they will feel comfortable by allowing that distribution.”

Mr Williams said a successful year for the business would be to open a couple of branches, possibly farther away, and to increase its online presence.

He said: “It is vitally important. Any successful business should be building an online presence. If you look at the statistics, it is growing month on month and year on year. I was reading that by 2015, that marketplace will be worth £10bn.

“From Van Mildert’s point of view, we want a share of that.”

He said the fact people could associate the website with high street branches strengthened the brand, and added: “People get a great deal of comfort from being able to link an online retailer to bricks and mortar, the two go hand-inhand.

“I think somehow if you shop with Van Mildert online and you are walking down the high street and you can walk into a store and talk to someone, you feel comfortable.”

After several years running the business, Mr Williams said: “It has exceeded our expectations. In 2007, could we have seen ourselves at the point we are now? Possibly no, but we are not patting ourselves on the back.

“There is still a job that needs to be done. It is down to us to push it further and see where we end up.”