Clarks: Made to Last

by Mark Palmer

  All of the first phase houses and flats, completed in 2010, were built to EcoHomes ‘Excellent’ standard to achieve a substantial reduction in carbon emissions. A sustainable urban drainage system created a network of swales and reed beds. This both deals with surface water run-off and provides a habitat for native species. Mechanical heat recovery units were also incorporated.

  Historically, these unchanging values have sat comfortably with Clarks’ ability to change, on which the company’s very survival has depended. As has been described earlier, the company has changed dramatically over the years: it is now strictly a wholesaling and retailing business, sourcing shoes mainly from China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Brazil, and it is governed in a very different way to how it was before the rejected Berisford bid in 1993.

  Clarks’ track record in pioneering innovation goes back to William Clark’s introduction of machinery into the manufacturing process during the second half of the nineteenth century. Later, the company was quick to experiment with soling made from artificial materials; it exploited the idea of width-fittings to acclaimed commercial success and became universally recognised for measuring children’s feet properly; and it was quick to adopt computer technology.

  A long way from hand-stitched sheepskin slippers: a resin model of a classic shoe produced by 3D printing technology direct from CAD data.

  Today, true to its heritage of embracing modern technology, Clarks has added digital 3D additive prototyping to its shoemaking armoury. This technique, more widely known as 3D printing, creates a physical form direct from CAD data produced by a designer. A prototype model of a shoe can now be produced and assessed without the need for costly moulds, and in a tenth of the time taken by previous methods. And as well as allowing design ideas to be developed faster, this innovation also makes it possible to evaluate a wider range of variations within each style. Alongside this new 3D technology, Clarks has also pioneered the use of digital data to improve its service to customers by creating a fitting gauge for use on digital tablets and touchscreen devices – a whole new way for consumers to connect and interact with a familiar brand.

  Any shoe business has to be adept at responding to fashion and seeking to shape it. Clarks’ record for this has been patchy over the years, at times taking a lead in determining fashions, at others trailing and appearing old-fashioned. Not so long ago, many consumers regarded Clarks as dowdy – safe, good value but still dowdy – but today those same consumers increasingly have a different view of Clarks.

  Potter acknowledges as much:

  It’s true that in the past we became polarised between young people and older people, rather than appealing to the 30–45 bracket. But that has changed. We are all about real fashion for real people with a sense of energy and fun about it. And the commonality between the average 65-year-old and 30-year-old is closer than ever before. Everyone wants to look stylish, whatever their age.

  In Street, there are 60–70 shoe designers, who work up to two years in advance of any particular sales season. There is also a ‘Trend Department’ consisting of four people who look even further ahead at socio-economic developments on the one hand, and colour, form and texture on the other. A shoe spends 3–6 months in the product development stage before samples are made, and in any season Clarks produces some 80,000 pairs of samples.

  Some sections of the media have picked up on the changing profile of Clarks customers.

  ‘Suddenly, the 186-year-old business [Clarks] has acquired street cred,’ announced The Times towards the end of 2011. The paper reached this conclusion by reporting that there were waiting lists for the company’s mid-calf suede boots, known as the Majorca Villa range, and that the Neeve Ella boot, a cross between a Spanish riding boot and a traditional British Wellington boot, was selling out in Clarks stores across the UK.

  Clarks has been working in collaboration with Mary Portas, the so-called ‘Queen of Shops’, who first worked as a consultant to Clarks during Tim Parker’s time as chief executive. Since then, she and her agency, Yellow Door, have produced a series of magazine ad campaigns, culminating in 2011 with ‘Where our heart is: the spirit of Clarks’, featuring images set in the Somerset countryside against a backdrop of honey-coloured Georgian houses with honey-skinned young male and female models.

  ‘I wanted to bring the brand back to where it belonged,’ says Portas, who was commissioned in 2011 by the prime minister, David Cameron, to conduct an independent review into the state of the British high street. ‘Everyone steals heritage, but Clarks oozes it from every pore, and then when you add that to something modern and sexy you’ve really got reason to shout about it. To me, Clarks represents the best practice of British quality and comfort at a decent price.’

  The ‘street cred’ reference in The Times touched on Clarks’ ongoing involvement in the music scene through its Clarks Originals association with live bands such as Little Dragon, Bo Ningen, The Rassle and Louise and the Pins. ‘Clarks Originals are of the moment. Always have been. Always will be’, reads the copy in the Clarks Original Live magazine that supports bands starting out on their quest for success.

  Towards the end of 2012, a book called Clarks in Jamaica chronicled the perhaps surprising association between Clarks and the reggae scene on the Caribbean island. Written by Al Newman (aka Al Fingers), the book waxes lyrical about singers such as Dillinger, Ranking Joe, Little John, Super Cat and, more recently, Vybz Kartel, all of whom have incorporated Clarks into their music. It was the Desert Boot which began this love affair, finding favour in the late 1960s with Jamaica’s so-called ‘rude boys’. Newman quotes a Jamaican producer as saying, ‘The original gangster rude boy dem, a Clarks dem wear. And in Jamaica a rude boy him nah wear cheap ting.’

  Historically Clarks has tended to have its greatest influence on fashion at the times when it has advertised most effectively and creatively. Its early showcards – often endorsed by stars of stage and screen – had a homely, comical edge to them. And its first national campaign in 1933 employed the services of the American artist Edward McKnight Kauffer, who at the time was regarded as an avant-garde figure and who quickly gained a reputation for elevating advertising to a high art.

  Investment in advertising continues. The successful ‘Act your shoe size not your age’ campaign from the Tim Parker era was followed by ‘Life’s a long catwalk’ and then ‘New shoes’. More recently, ‘Stand Tall. Walk Clarks’ tapped into a younger, more fashion-conscious market. ‘Kids love the look and parents appreciate the quality that means (good) value for money,’ read the copy in an advertisement feature that ran in the Sunday Times in July 2012.

  The importance of advertising is now ingrained. Similarly, the Clarks hold on the children’s market remains as strong as ever. ‘First shoes’ and ‘Back to school’ options are displayed prominently, supported by reminders that ‘little feet need the best of care,’ a consistent theme going back many decades. Much is made of a toddler’s first pair of shoes, with staff on hand to catch the moment in a photograph which is then presented in its own cardboard wallet. The back-to-school market is as important to the company as Christmas is to many other retailers. The abiding policy is still based around the idea of attracting the child to the brand as much as his or her parent. In the UK, out of a total of almost 29 million sales by Clarks, 10 million are children’s shoes.

  Because Clarks has always stressed the importance of children having their feet properly measured and their shoes properly fitted, until 2012 the company did not sell any children’s shoes via its online channels (which in 2011 accounted for nearly 11 per cent of total retail sales). But the demand was there, prompting the company to offer customers the chance to buy either a Toddler Gauge (for £6) or Junior Gauge (for £8) for themselves so they could measure their children’s feet at home, order online and then choose between home delivery or collection at a store of their choice. Both gauges come with a set of guidelines, and there is an online video instruction.

  Having put the design
flair back into shoes, the company is now making sure they are displayed to best advantage, and so the stores themselves are changing. Over the next few years, the ‘white global format’, as it is known, is being phased out and replaced by the C7 format, which is warmer and more welcoming, with brown and green as the dominant colours. C7 takes inspiration from Clarks history, with shoes sitting on top of upturned wooden crates with ‘Street, Somerset 1825’ printed on them, and in many branches five lasts are secured to a panel above the main cash desk, with ‘Master shoemakers since 1825’ written underneath.

  Well-designed shoes and well-appointed shops need good staff. Engaging with customers is central to Clarks retail and marketing imperatives. During 2012, a team of Clarks’ best and most experienced store managers travelled the country carrying out what the company calls ‘Leap Training’, designed to give shop assistants greater confidence on the sales floor.

  ‘The best people we have are those with strong outside interests who like to talk to customers,’ says Richard Houlton, Clarks Director of Channels, whose responsibilities include retail shops, franchise stores, the wholesale business and online sales. ‘We are trying to reinvigorate the shopping experience, which means you are properly greeted and feel that someone understands your needs. And a good sales person will always bring out a second choice for the consumer.’

  Visitors to Clarks get a taste of the company’s purposeful informality, particularly if they are invited to the Cowshed café on the first floor. Office workers and department heads dress casually and conduct meetings at tables scattered about the room. Talking and listening are encouraged.

  In the wider business world, the Clarks shareholder council is seen as a model for other family firms, with the Institute for Family Business (UK) habitually using the company to demonstrate proper family governance. The structure allows for longer-term thinking and balances profit reinvestment with dividend pay-outs.

  ‘The Clarks board has a clear understanding of what the owners want and in turn the owners leave it to professional managers to run the business,’ says Grant Gordon, director general of the Institute for Family Business. ‘Crucially, the owners are putting the interest of the business before their own liquidity and this sense of long-term responsibility is bound to trickle down throughout the workforce.’

  Harriet Hall, the first chairman of the shareholder council following the failed Berisford bid, says that the three non-family chief executives of Clarks since that time have all ‘recognised that as a family we have an attachment to how the company is progressing that goes way beyond an interest in the figures’.

  Explaining the relationship between family and management further, she continues:

  If we were shareholders in a public company we would not get anything like the detail of information we are given. Questions about the minutiae of what is going on in Street are answered. There are times when we may get close to stepping over the line in trying to influence management, but on the whole I believe that they take this in the spirit in which it is meant – as an expression of our commitment to the future of Clarks.

  Peter Davies, the Clarks chairman, regards the family council as an ‘effective bridge’ between the shareholders and the board. He says:

  When I joined the company I was told that one of the strengths of Clarks was its passionate shareholders – and that one of its weaknesses was its passionate shareholders. In a company that has evolved as far as Clarks has in separating ownership from management, it would be easy for the lines to get blurred. The council is well informed on the company’s strategy and performance, and has regular opportunities to question the chairman, chief executive and finance director on any issues that concern them. In parallel, the shareholders can channel queries and concerns effectively through the council.

  Clarks goes about its business in its own determined but quiet way and does not seek media exposure. Potter, with Davies’s backing, declines interviews with the financial press, and the Clark family – several of whom still live in Street – recoils from publicity. They come together once a year at the AGM to hear Potter and the board explain the latest set of figures and outline plans for the future, after which sandwiches and soft drinks are served in the former canteen at the back of the main headquarters building overlooking the Quaker burial ground.

  Around 80 per cent of shareholders are family members or family trusts, including charitable trusts. The remainder are mainly employees, ex-employees and trusts associated with the company, including the Clarks Foundation. The total dividend paid for the year ending in January 2012 was £21.7 million.

  The woollen slippers created from off-cuts by James Clark soon after 1828 were a clever idea. James was not content to live in the past and, crucially, he came up with something people wanted to buy. Today, the growth of the business still depends entirely on people wanting to buy Clarks shoes. Potter likens a brand to a promise. And the promise is that comfortable shoes can be stylish, and stylish shoes can be comfortable – and stylish and comfortable shoes can be bought at affordable prices. It must help that Clarks enjoys a brand awareness of which many of its competitors can only dream, and implicit in that awareness is a sense of trust, even though many consumers may know little about the company itself.

  An insurance company recently carried out a survey to identify the profiles of what it called ‘Mr and Mrs Made It’. It found that they have an average of four bedrooms, off-street parking, a power shower, and they go on holiday abroad most years, often to far-flung destinations. They eat out at restaurants at least once a fortnight. And they wear Clarks shoes.

  Surveys, like opinion polls, aren’t always reliable. What they conceal can be just as interesting as what they reveal – but you don’t need a survey or an opinion poll to determine that C. & J. Clark Ltd is a redoubtable British institution striding purposefully towards its 200th anniversary.

  The Clarks shoe business began when James Clark started producing sheepskin slippers in the early 1830s from the offcuts of his brother Cyrus’s rugs. With Cyrus’s support, this new line of slippers, known as ‘Brown Petersburgs’ or ‘Brown Peters’ (the slipper above is an accurate later reconstruction), prospered and led to other types of footwear, including lambswool socks. Below is one of the brothers’ earliest known showcards for their fledgling range.

  A showcard from the 1880s, proclaiming the healthy and beneficial properties of the Hygienic range – it eventually became the Anatomical range. At the bottom of the card is the iconic image of St Michael’s Tower on Glastonbury Tor, which was to become the well-known Tor trademark. The trademark was gradually superseded by the Clarks brand in the 1930s, but it continued to be used on the bottom of shoeboxes until the 1970s, and it still appears on Clarks shoes today.

  A 1925 centenary showcard with prominent Tor branding, one of several designed for Clarks in the 1920s by the American-born artist Edward McKnight Kauffer.

  Showcards for Tor shoes from 1927 (at right – a design by the Austrian artist Mela Koehler) and 1928 (below – by Freda Beard), showing very different styles of design.

  Mela Koehler’s supremely stylish 1929 showcard for the new ‘T-bar pump’ dancing shoes.

  This 1932 showcard features strong and confident Clarks branding, but the longlasting Tor symbol still appears discreetly.

  These four showcards for children’s shoes (from 1932, 1933, 1934 and 1938) show rapidly changing styles of illustration and of typography for the Clarks name itself: the 1938 card shows an early form of the famous handwritten Clarks logo.

  The 1940s saw a determined push by Clarks to associate its shoes with celebrities – particularly glamorous actresses. Many of the photographs were taken by John Hinde, son of the Clarks director Wilfrid Hinde, and great grandson of James Clark, including this 1945 image of Wendy Hiller, who was starring in the Powell and Pressburger film I Know Where I’m Going. Here she wears a pair of Prestwick lace-up shoes.

  Actress Greta Gynt, photographed wearing wood-soled sanda
ls in 1945 by John Hinde. In the background is Wells Cathedral, near the Clarks home town of Street.

  Margaret Lockwood, star of many successful films of the 1940s, was invited to tour the Clarks factory at Street with her daughter Toots in 1946. She is seen here with Toots in costume for her 1946 film of Daphne du Maurier’s Hungry Hill. Clarks recreated period shoes for the film.

  Anna Neagle, who starred in a stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma in 1945, photographed in costume by John Hinde. The advertisement notes that she wears a replica of a fashionable Clarks shoe of the period, and includes an image of the 1845 original.

  A 1951 showcard for the classic Clarks footgauge. Many years later, Bancroft Clark, chairman of Clarks for 25 years and a major figure in the company’s history, said that the footgauge was the idea on which ‘the vast expansion in our children’s business was founded’.

  This 1953 showcard emphasises the crucial importance of offering a comfortable and correct fit – the cornerstone of Clarks marketing for nearly 200 years.

  The successful Flotilla range was introduced in 1954 and was not replaced until 1970. Its sales slogan was ‘The City to the Sea’, but the nautical theme is not echoed in this 1956 showcard.

  Described as ‘Desert Casuals’ in this 1957 showcard, the Desert Boot was first produced by Clarks in 1949, and its sales reached a peak in 1971. It has remained consistently fashionable and its design has scarcely changed over its lifetime.