EXQUISITE LIGHTING
Shining a light on business succession
Exquisite Lighting specialises in restoring vintage and antique chandeliers, wall lights, lanterns and table lamps. This family run business has over 40 years of experience in restoring, cleaning and rewiring exquisite lighting and they travel the world to find the very best in antique and decorative chandeliers and lamps that need bringing back to life.
The business has the largest stock of antique and traditional chandeliers in the country with 2000 + unrestored chandeliers ready for restoration at any one time as well as hundreds of thousands of crystals all ranging in style and age.
As well as restoring, Exquisite Lighting advises on the best chandelier for a particular room or location, they install and they deliver anywhere in the world to individual homes, historic and stately houses and even filming locations.
THE CHALLENGE
As a family-run business, Exquisite Lighting was facing a critical challenge – that of ensuring a smooth and successful succession from father to son. Phil Jaques, with his 40 years of contacts and experience, was keen to mentor his son, Fred Moore-Jaques, and his partner, Courtney Martin, whilst keeping the traditional values.
Whilst retaining and learning from Phil’s expertise, Fred believed that the future of the business lay in targeting end consumers with sleek new branding, stunning marketing materials and by taking the business online. In essence, doing business a new way.
The Solution
To develop his own business skills, Fred applied to the Productivity HUBs Accelerator Programme. The Programme, spread over six-to-eight weeks, provided Fred with the opportunity to hear and learn from a variety of mentors and experts in a range of topics.
The outcome was a far more confident man and the development of a business plan with defined objectives and a clear strategy for Exquisite Lighting going forwards. This included a detailed plan of how this was going to be achieved - from both a marketing and logistics perspective.
The Verdict
From the entrepreneur
“The Productivity HUBs Programme took me right out of my comfort zone! However, the experts on the programme were fantastic, condensing topics into bite-size pieces that would have taken me an age to pick up elsewhere.
“Rebecca Webster and Gary Mumby were so supportive and over the eight weeks my confidence grew exponentially. I realised I could take the business to the next level. We now have a business strategy that will see us move away from the traditional channels of selling through intermediaries to selling direct to the end-consumer through an e-commerce website. The result will be a more profitable enterprise, enabling us to pass this on to the customer, that builds on our experience whilst preparing us for the next 40 years!”
Let's take the first step together!
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