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The Interview: David Williams, CEO, Séraphine

Lauretta Roberts
06 February 2020

David Williams took over as CEO of fast-growing London-based maternity brand Séraphine in the autumn of last year having joined the business as COO in 2017.

It might seem something of an expected career move for someone who spent nearly seven years in senior director roles at one of the world's most successful fashion e-commerce businesses, ASOS, to go to a specialist £22m-turnover firm, but in fact it turns out to be far more suited to him than a plc.

"Prior to ASOS I was at an early-stage venture-backed business and I never thought I'd go to a large business," he says, adding that when he joined ASOS it was, to some extent, still behaving like a start-up, but by the time he left it was a global giant.

"I wanted to do a PE-backed business and this ticked all the boxes," he explains. Séraphine was founded in 2002 by Cécile Reinaud and since 2017 Bridgepoint Capital has held a majority stake in the business. Reinaud stepped back to three days a week, focusing on brand and product, when Williams was appointed CEO and is still very much an integral part of the business.

Williams, however, is relishing the role of strategic direction coupled with truly getting under the hood the business. "I love being strategic and I love driving growth but I also love getting my hands dirty," he says, admitting that he has been known to pore over the company's email marketing systems to see who's signing up and who's reading and acting on the emails the company generates. What's more he often tracks any customer service requests personally, so he can understand the issues the customer is facing and how well the company is responding to them. "I'm quite hands on," he says with quiet understatement.

When TheIndustry.fashion was visiting he was preparing for a trip to the US store in New York as it was having a new till system installed and he wanted to understand that. "If you don't know [the detail] how can you make good decisions for the business?" he reasons.

Williams is a mathematician, having studied the subject to master's level at Oxford, and clearly there's something about his brain that is well suited to a digitally led business, not just from a technology point of view but also customer acquisition. He says there's a pattern and a logic to cracking maths that lends itself well to running such a business. "I have solved problems that tech team couldn't solve, not because I'm better at technology than they are, but I can break problems into smaller sequences and work them out," he says.

All that being said, he seems perfectly at home with the product - which caters both for pregnant and breast-feeding woman -  and is happy to extol the virtues of a parka coat that allows easy access for feeding and has a zip-in baby pouch, as well as talking through the brand's wide range of styles that take pregnant women everywhere from the most casual of occasions through to work and black tie events, and also weddings (both as guest and bride).

Séraphine occasion wear

Séraphine was a trailblazer in this regard. Back in 2002 there was very little choice for pregnant women when it came to fashion, and what was available was either very cheap or very expensive and not the most stylish. These days many high street brands offer maternity options but Séraphine remains neatly nestled in the "affordable luxury" space. Maternity dresses sit around the £45 to £65 price range with occasion wear going up to around £200.

What really put the brand on the map was the Duchess of Cambridge choosing to wear it during her first pregnancy with Prince George in 2013, and also during her subsequent pregnancies. The company was a lot smaller then and the impact on the business was "huge" and her patronage remains important, even though her youngest child, Prince Louis, is approaching two years old. The brand is still well known as having been a royal favourite.

Seraphine

Duchess of Cambridge in Seraphine coat

Séraphine's contemporary and feminine design sensibilities (Reinaud is French and it shows in the designs) had wide appeal and celebrity endorsements are an important part of its marketing. However no one is paid to wear the clothes. "When [celebrities] are caught wearing it, it's because they have chosen to. We may have sent samples to some of them but they are delighted to wear it without expecting payment," he says.

But pregnant royals and influencers, paid or otherwise, only take the business so far. Given that its clothes have relevance in a women's life for a relatively short period of time, filling the funnel with new customers is an important and constant task.

Digital marketing is key and, because of the brand's specialism, it is very effective. "When you are pregnant we are uber, uber relevant to you," Williams explains and this means that its messages, when the hit the right audience, resonate.

It uses Facebook and paid search for prospecting and email for retargeting. Once a customer has made a purchase, he says, there is a strong chance they will come back again. Affiliate partnerships work well as do peer to peer referrals and to do this the brand works with specialists Mention Me. In the past 12 months alone almost 4,000 customers in the UK have shared details of their purchases with friends generating well into six-figure sums in new business.

One of the most meaningful drivers of growth has been from international expansion. Germany has been the brand's biggest market in Europe and it was one of the regions to have received a localised site. To back this up the brand also produced digital marketing in German, which led to huge growth, and has established a logistics facility in Belgium to serve the EU market.

The same strategy was carried out in Australia with payment in local currency and dedicated localised digital marketing, which has also reaped meaningful rewards. While the breakdown of growth per market is not revealed, overall the business has witnessed growth of 30% in the past financial year and 40% growth in its e-commerce business. 

Seraphine

Marylebone Boutique

As well as the e-commerce business, Séraphine, does have a series of strategically placed physical stores. In the UK, there are dedicated boutiques in Kensington, Clapham, Marylebone, John Lewis Oxford Street and Victoria Quarter, Leeds. Internationally there are stores in New York, Paris, Dubai, Hong Kong and New Delhi.

While Williams says the business doesn't have a strategy to open stores "on every major high street and in every major city", physical stores "do have an inherent value in supporting your brand. [Customers] seeing those stores gives your brand validation. We will continue to open stores where we see potential."

Clearly the most potential for growth comes from online and more crucially the potential for more profitable growth given that the overheads can be more tightly controlled. As Williams puts it, "just because you've grown by 40% [online] doesn't mean you need to add 40% more people". At present there are around 100 staff across its stores and in its West London HQ, which is home to its management, design, marketing and tech teams, and indeed its sample-making facility.

Given all the effort it takes to win customers, it might be tempting to consider branching out in other areas, such as general ready-to-wear or even childrenswear, so that you can keep those customers for longer. But at the moment that's not on the cards, though there may be other complementary categories it would consider within the realms of pregnancy and nursing. "This is total dedication," he says, "it's the only thing we do".

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