A redeveloped shop in Windermere is aiming to unite the past and the present by introducing new technology as well as showcasing the firm’s history.

Bob Granger, retail director and financial director at kitchenware retailer Lakeland, explained that its  new store was embracing its heritage with a “history wall” showing the firm's origins.

Mr Granger was speaking to in-Cumbria as part of our weekly “10 minutes with” series of interviews with local business leaders.

So, who is Bob Granger?

“I’ve been at Lakeland for 12 years this Christmas, which is the longest I’ve worked at any company. I joined here from Vodafone, which is based in Newbury which was a big move up here.

“I’m the financial director and the retail director which are two completely different roles which are not often held together by the same person.

“So I’m responsible for the financial and strategic planning of the business from new contracts to tax and insurance.

“In my role as retail director, I get to speak to the 12,000 staff we have across our 69 stores who are all responsible for the great service we provide and work with our product range every day.

That must take you all over the UK then?

“So we’re now as far north as Inverness and as far south west and Truro, both of whom I’ve had the opportunity to visit this year.

“I went to Inverness because the team there had actually won an internal prize and got a day to whatever they wanted so the retail management team went to run the store for a day.

“I do find that I learn a lot from the people who are in store, they get he chance to listen to the customers and recognise what they’re saying and what products are selling well.

“We’ve now got store in Enniskillen in Northern Ireland, as well as 15 stores in the Middle East and today we’ve opened one in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well as three stores in India.

The new store opening

“The store in Windermere is the largest store we have at up to 12,000sq ft  and it also has a cafe as well.

“It’s a completely different introduction to the store, it’s much lighter and brighter and the store has a different feel to showcase the products.

“We’ve got a new demonstration kitchen here, that will allow for the demonstration of products but also that will let customers to get their hands on them and see how they work.

“I think it’s quite inspiring for people to show them exactly how a product can be used and to get them in the kitchen to try something new.

“We’ve introduced some new technology to the store as well, we’re using tablets to show people videos of the products and how they work as well or to give customer reviews of a certain item.”

Are the products embracing technology in the same fashion?

“Lots of our products embrace innovation and we’ve been able to develop things such as certain electrical products that we’ve made under our own brand that you can’t find anywhere else.

“But also we have products here that we’ve been selling for 20 or 30 years that we keep selling because they’re customer favourites and still effective at what they do.

And what are your hopes for the new store?

“What we’re focused on is people getting the best possible experience from our store, from the lovely store to the people and the products.

“We have developed a history wall in the Windermere store that showcases the history of the brand over the last 50 years, which has changed dramatically.

“It showcases more waterproof jackets for lambs and boat covers etcetera up until the present day.

“Lots of our customers feel a connection to Lakeland beyond the superficial relationship people have with brands now.

“It’s common for people to come into Lakeland and talk about how different our shops were and the kinds of things they used to be able to buy, a lot of our staff have worked here for upwards of 10, 15 or 20 years as well.

“Malcolm, the man who is actually opening the redesigned store in Windermere will have worked at the company for 45 years and a lot of our staff have only ever worked for this company.”