Scottish Export Index Nominee: Powder Design

What does your company do?  

Powder Design is a woman owned accessories and gift brand based in Scotland. Design Director Lisa Beaumont initiated the brand in 2009 and it has since grown into an international B2B powerhouse with over 3000 stockists worldwide.

Bespoke and playful prints are designed in house, and these adorn an expansive range of gorgeous gifts. Adhering to the traditional fashion calendar, Powder introduces around 300 pieces biannually to adhere with the traditional fashion calendar. Product categories have expanded from small accessories to clothing and nightwear, and stockists extend from Tasmania to Toronto.

How important has exporting been to the growth/ongoing success of your company? 

Development of our export business has been crucial for growth at Powder. It has allowed us to grow the business massively whilst simultaneously adding resilience in a turbulent retail era. With multiple sales channels and markets, we are able to rely on a consistent sales flow that is less impacted by socio-economic and macro-environmental factors.

What does your company export, and where to?

We export accessories and gifts with a key focus on our unique prints which are designed in Scotland. We currently export these across Europe, Canada, The USA, Australia, and New Zealand.

What’s next for your company?  

Current strategic goals for Powder include:
-expansion to Europe via a new international 3PL to mitigate the effects of Brexit
-new supply and production initiatives to decrease environmental impact and minimise waste
- development of a new sub brand to include new product categories and target a new demographic
- exploration of routes to market in the South American region

What would be the main lesson learned/piece of advice you would give to companies starting their export journey? 

We feel it is very important to learn about the nuance in each new market and adapt all elements of business strategy to reflect these. Whilst some processes can be replicated from one market to another, there is huge variance in everything from consumer tastes to legislation and these need to be understood in order to export successfully and profitably.

This being said, we have learned from the introduction of each new market, and then these learnings are ready to be applied to future new territories. As long as the business is ready to adapt, there is huge success and market share to be found internationally.

What inspired you to export? 

We are keen to maintain longevity as a brand, and as a result offer stockists post code or zip code protection. Thus when our UK potential was maximised, in order to expand the business, our geographical horizons needed to expand beyond the UK. We initially began expanding into Europe in 2019, exhibiting at trade fairs in Germany and recruiting sales agents overseas.

Our export business expanded massively from 2020 onwards. The impact of coronavirus was drastic on the fashion and gift industry, and we had to react quickly and drastically initiate new and creative strategies to survive in such a turbulent environment. We focussed on creating new revenue streams and developed digital routes to market which allowed retailers to place orders with us without face-to-face business meetings as we previously relied upon.

We built in-house digital expertise, and implemented a number of new systems which meant we were able to expand and export to new markets worldwide. We were also focussed on becoming a market leader with regards to fulfilment, which allowed us to compete internationally with brands which are local to our new international retailers.

The U.S market quickly became crucial, and is continuing to expand as we invest further in the region. Using the knowledge we gained over this period, we are currently able to use a combination of digital and in person selling techniques to maximise our potential with our in house Edinburgh team. Combining the use of international showrooms and digital sales channels now allows us to reach a wide range of customers in different regions simultaneously throughout the entire season.

What support have you had along the way? 

We have had support from S.E, which has been really helpful. We have also had huge support from other businesses and vendors whom we have met internationally at trade shows, and being experts in their own markets we have been able to connect and share knowledge which has been incredibly useful.

What have the main challenges been and how did you overcome these? 

Brexit continues to pose the largest challenge for our EU export business. We have invested huge amounts financially and in terms of human capital to service our existing EU partners, and the constant evolving picture of doing trade with the EU has meant we have struggled to live up to our own standards as a supplier in this region. As a UK retailer it has become increasingly difficult to compete in the EU market with extensive export restrictions.

We have undertaken huge steps to navigate Brexit and having discussed extensively with our partners and retailers across Europe plan to open a warehouse in the EU in Summer 2023. We believe an EU based 3PL will allow us to supply retailers in Europe quickly and with ease, serving a network of independent EU retailers which we know has a real appetite for the Powder brand.