After early success with ties, Patrick Dudley-Williams branched out with his Reef Knots brand.
In late 2012, Patrick Dudley-Williams was three months away from being a director at Morgan Stanley (MS) and two days from his wife giving birth to twins when he was made redundant. One year later he was standing in his former employer’s canteen selling ties at a gift fair.
“My wife looked at me bizarrely when I said I was going to start a tie company,” muses Dudley-Williams, founder of men’s lifestyle brand Reef Knots.
Even if he had a business “with the most unpopular clothing item of all time”, he recalls meetings in nondescript offices and remembering people’s names who had standout ties.
Colourful character clearly goes a long way and with his headstrong mantra that consumers have more ties than jeans in their wardrobe, the former stock broker turned entrepreneur also knew he would be operating in an uncompetitive British market.
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Thus, Dudley-Williams stood behind a table at gift fairs for nearly three years to get the business up and running.
“It helps that it hasn’t been all plain sailing,” he admits. “There was a phase when I first started, you turn on your website and hope people will come and it will all happen. Very quickly you realise that no one cares and you will have to generate interest, create a great product and persuade a consumer to spend £70 with you and not with every other brand in the world.
“It’s a hyper competitive industry but people will always revert to who they know and that they will get value for money and quality.”
Dudley-Willams sold more than 50 ties and made £4k over two days at one of his first gift fairs.
Production started with a UK manufacturer before unforeseen issues saw a move to the tie mecca of Como, Italy — handmade from screen-printed silk and where Reef Knots remains to this day.
His first website sale outside of family and friends came via human interaction when Dudley-Williams plucked up the courage to go up to a Hermès tie wearer in a pub with his business card. “It reminded me that if you tell people about it they will come,” he says. The next morning he purchased three ties.
Eighteen months after launching and a desire to keep selling after the gift fair season, Dudley-Williams teamed up with a business partner who made socks after a pop-up shop success in Putney.
Following a £20,000 crowdfund, the pair found an old launderette with a bell on the door in Leadenhall Market. Online stock was kept in the basement while his office had a low roof where sitting down was the only option.
When COVID hit, Reef Knot’s business was 40% ties while 30% came from its London shop. The subsequent 70% revenue decline accounted for a “traumatic period” but accelerated Reef Knot’s pivot into a wider menswear brand.
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“I realised the creative side should come out of one brain and it isn’t the vast majority of my year,” he says. “It was part of the process of learning the business from scratch, a second degree via YouTube, packaging and Google (GOOG) advertising.”
Despite the change from the City to the risk of a tie venture, entrepreneurship has been etched into his family’s DNA and he figured that the corporate world would never be his final calling.
While working in finance 20 years ago, Dudley-Williams had looked into buying some mirrored aviator sunglasses. He was soon earning more than his monthly salary after finding a distributor in China and selling via eBay. Other sellers soon latched on and he called it a day.
Reef Knots founder turned redundancy into an opportunity with his handmade printed silk ties venture.
“When I was working in finance I travelled to the US a lot and saw how ties were branded differently,” he says. “In the UK, it was a symbol of the corporate grind, heritage and stuffy brand messaging. I felt we could do something fresh and fun.”
In 2014, ocean-inspired Reef Knots partnered with the Blue Marine Foundation which, says Dudley-Williams, has opened doors for the sustainability brand. With early tie designs featuring fish and sailing boats, the likes of Prince Harry and Richard Branson, the latter briefly to support the brand, have been seen wearing Reef Knots ties, while its swim shorts are made using recycled ocean plastic.
A board member for seven years at the UK Fashion & Textile Association, Dudley-Williams says Reef Knots has sometimes been accused of not being a British brand, with its lifestyle products also made in Portugal.
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“People could look a little closer at independents and realise the jobs they do for the economy in the UK,” he argues. “The reality is that we don’t have the developed manufacturing industry that we require to make things as British as we would like them.
“We always do things right and try to put the customer first and I will put our product in front of almost anyone in terms of quality and the way it is produced.”
Today, Reef Knots has one store in Salcombe, headquarters in Chippenham and a staff of six. From revenues of around £350,000 in 2015, Reef Knots is currently a mid seven figure business.
Reef Knots produces sustainably-focused fabrics.
“We run a lean ship,” he adds. “I sometimes look at these businesses and I don’t know what these people do. We make products, we have operations and marketing. If you have good people with enthusiasm to learn you can get an awful lot done.”
After 12 years, Dudley-Williams has also packed a lot in to survive and thrive as an independent clothing firm, a world away from having three children under the age of three and walking back to his old office to sell ties to former colleagues.
“I said to myself that if this was what I was going to do for a living then I can’t be embarrassed to go back,” he says.
“There were moments where I asked myself if I had done the right thing. But I had to be all in on it.”
Managing cash flow
We are never surprised by pitfalls. Investors we speak to have been surprised at the level of detail in our cash flow numbers. The clothing business is a difficult game to manage with upfront costs for stock and cash flow is the number one thing to make you grow, as well as the returning customer base.
Powering up growth
I spent three hours looking at our Google Ads campaigns recently. I have used many agencies over the years, all have promised to turn water into wine and none have. To grow the fastest there are certain things as a founder that I need to master and understanding what drives our growth is a key part.
Telling our story
For a long time on social media we’ve had models walking in slow motion with their tops off. There is a place for that for a certain customer, but people also want to know what’s behind the company. The best performing ads are ones where I am discussing our journey and challenges. It has been really valuable.
Consumer promise
Our job is to always over deliver for customers. We tell people our returns are processed in a week but we make sure it’s done in a day. That way we are always beating customer expectations and that’s how they become loyal. Ultimately that’s what we are creating as a business.
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