Selling Romance, British Style

By Kenneth M. Pierce

Laura Ashley goes from a kitchen table to sales of $100 million

A world in search of old-fashioned romance has closely followed this year's fairy-tale stories about Britain's Prince Charles and the Princess of Wales. Selling British romance has also proved a fine business for Laura Ashley Ltd., which has turned a blend of Victorian ruffles and patterns into a nearly $100 million-a-year women's wear and home-furnishings company. The firm's line of frilly blouses, pastel flowered bedspreads and quilted tea cozies now sells from San Francisco to Singapore and from Milan to Melbourne.

Laura Ashley stores present buyers with a carefully planned atmosphere of gentility: china cups sprinkled with dainty flowers, velvet or taffeta ball gowns with lace collars, ruffled canopy curtains atop four-poster beds. Half of the sales come from women's clothes, the other half from decorating products. The firm traces its success to the distinctive, neo-Victorian look of all its goods, which creates a setting where Charlotte and Emily Bronte could easily feel at home. Says Peter Revers, president of the firm's American operation: "Laura Ashley sells lifestyles, not products per se--English life-styles."

The business began on a kitchen table in the basement flat of Laura and Bernard Ashley in London's Pimlico district. Starting in 1953, the couple printed designs on fabrics and made some of the material into towels and napkins that were sold in London shops. Their first runaway bestseller was a set of tea towels that was a copy of 19th century designs.

That, and all the couple's later products, bore the touch of Victorian England and became known in fashion circles as the Laura Ashley look. A succession of items, including striped garden smocks with three large pockets in front, and long, flowing dresses, sold well in the U.S. and Britain. In 1961 the Ashleys set up their first factory in an old dance hall in Carno, Wales. Opening an experimental shop in Kensington in 1968 convinced them that they could sell their products better than wholesalers could and, with out middlemen, at lower prices.

At first the company grew slowly, held back by a lack of long-term capital for expansion. But with Laura doing the designs and Bernard organizing the factories, which now number 14, the firm eventually prospered. The couple's two sons and two daughters also help out in the marketing and design departments of the company.

The Ashleys have divided the labor; sometimes they have a division of views too. Says she: "The company is design-dominated, not accountant-dominated." Bernard interjects: "I'm not sure that is quite right. We are run by profit managers." She responds: "I don't mind accountants--as long as they keep their place." Laura admits that she no longer attends company board meetings because "it was not a good idea for a husband and wife to be there together."

Since the mid-'70s, Laura Ashley Ltd. has ridden the Victorian revival and the renewed appreciation of delicate, curving and ornamental patterns in place of austere and mechanical design. The number of the firm's shops has increased from 55 to 100 since 1978, while sales have gone from $34.8 million to almost $100 million. The company's fastest-growing market at present is the U.S., where annual sales this year will almost double to $13 million. After opening new shops last month in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Cleveland and outside Chicago, Laura Ashley now has 15 stores in the U.S. The firm plans to open ten more next year.

As a result of their business success, the couple from the basement flat in Pimlico has won a British export award and been invited for a visit on the royal yacht Britannia. The Ashleys now live much of the year in a 17-bedroom, 18th century chateau in northern France. At a small airfield near by, Bernard keeps a Beechcraft King Air plane, which he uses to fly off to business meetings. And while fashion trends come and go, Laura Ashley in tends to continue selling ruffles and romance. Says she: "What the eye sees is important. High tech is too hard; people need softness." --By Kenneth M. Pierce. Reported by Mary Cronin/London and Jane Van Tassel/New York

With reporting by Mary Cronin/London, Jane Van Tassel/New York

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