S:CRAFT is the UK's largest and longest established distributor of shutters to the independent retail market. Recently rebranded from ShutterCraft, the S:CRAFT brand now reflects its wider product offering as well as the contemporary nature of the product ranges

Michael Schnuppe is head of sales and marketing at S:CRAFT.

Its potential and the enthusiasm S:CRAFT’s directors had for the business. My background was initially from within the automotive market where I worked in sales, marketing and general management for one of the world’s largest direct sales organisations (30,000 sales people at the time). I then joined the housewares industry where one of my responsibilities, apart from managing the salesforce, was looking after many of the major multiples supplying branded and own label lifestyle product manufactured in the Far East. All of these elements are key to an SME like S:CRAFT and I feel my experience and input can and has added real value to what is still a relatively young business.


Who has been the biggest influence on your career?

I am sure many people say their father. So it’s my father who left East Germany in the late 50s and from starting as a waiter worked his way up, through hard graft, to managing businesses employing up to 500 people. He earned peoples’ respect and loyalty and this lasted long after he had transferred to other businesses. I think the values embodied in that are an inspiration.
 
What are your customers looking for from S: CRAFT?

It depends on where they are in terms of their “shutter lifecycle”. Most shutter stockists require a huge amount of support initially both from the business development point of view as well as the technical issues that are involved in measuring for and fitting a three dimensional, made to measure window solution. The fact that the product is high value also requires training in up-selling to the consumer. For the mature stockist we need to provide an efficient resource that copes with the volumes they place with us and make this as ‘hassle free’ as possible. This is why elements such as our order status reporting are key for larger stockists and why the ongoing development of our trade portal and online ordering system are pivotal to providing added value. This next 12 months will see the continued implementation of our programme to provide market leading levels of support and service. Our customer services department will be at the forefront of delivering this, providing great support on order processing and technical queries.


What do you feel was the company’s big breakthrough?

Without a doubt finding our shutter and blinds supplier, they have a phenomenal range of products and the ability to manufacture any volume we require, quickly and to a continuously high standard. This means we can offer our customers the UK’s largest choice of materials, shapes, tracks, frames, stains and colours.


What do you feel is the greatest threat to the industry today?

New entrants into the shutter market (no more please!) for us and probably within other product segments for others. There are too many companies wanting to sell shutters without being willing to provide the costly support this product range requires. Unfortunately these types of players will ultimately dilute this product segment. The market will end up with too many stockists who cannot provide the consumer with professional advice or an aesthetically pleasing solution and who are not able to install a great quality product well. The risk is that consumer disappointment will result in a reduction in consumer demand for shutters as consumer advocacy deteriorates.


Where does your company draw inspiration from for its products?

Firstly, we are very fortunate that shutters are very much in vogue. Our Directors were the pioneers of the UK shutter market and have a huge passion for and knowledge of shutters. In my opinion, we source from the world’s best factory for shutter production and they continually strive to improve their product and have an immense hunger to stay at the forefront of shutter innovation. We offer quality, made to measure solutions to the window coverings market and it is this that drives and will continue to drive our product offering.


What advice would you give someone entering the industry today?

I hardly think I am in the position to give anyone advice. I would however be delighted to get advice from other contemporaries within the industry!  


How has the industry changed over the years?

Having only been in the window coverings industry for a year I don’t know I’m afraid. I am more focused on what we can do to make S:CRAFT stand out from other suppliers and am more concerned with how it will change in the future.


If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be?

Instil a sense of longevity to new entrants to the market who are currently coming in with “me too” product and trying to base their USP on price alone. These players will only drive price, then quality and finally demand down and we will all lose out. I have experienced this within the housewares market where a focus on cost has ultimately driven down the quality of numerous products to such an extent that suppliers are in effect punished twice – the squeeze on margin is compounded by a drop in sales as consumers realise the product does not meet their quality aspirations and at that point both retailer and supplier lose out.


How do you relax?

It used to be swimming two to three times a week, meeting friends in the evening for a pint and regular ‘off the beaten track’ travel, but since I joined S:CRAFT and also have a two year old son this has fallen by the wayside. So it’s cycling (I’m the rickshaw driver) on the exercise front, meeting with friends for breakfast or lunch whilst taking my son to the park. Nothing stays the same.  


Who do you most admire in business?

Reinhold Wurth, an incredible man, who started selling nuts and bolts from a cart as a 19 year old in post war Germany and has built up one of Germany’s largest privately owned companies turning over 8 billion euros per year and over 55,000 employees worldwide. I worked for this company for 10 years and they focused a huge amount of resource on developing staff and on developing innovative new products, both of which fuelled impressive growth. One of my favourite sayings comes from my time at Wurth: ‘Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity.’


What is the best thing about your job?

I love the fact that we have not even scratched the surface as far as potential is concerned for S:CRAFT. We are a progressive company that offers the best quality product in the market. Whether it’s our shutters, our made to measure wood slat Venetians or any other product we bring to market. These are exciting times and we have come a long way in the last year. In less than a year the company has re-branded from ShutterCraft to S:CRAFT to reflect the contemporary nature of shutters as well as our broader product offering, sponsored the Ideal Home Show Guest House, which was filled with our fantastic shutters and blinds, receiving fantastic consumer feedback as well as creating new above and below the line marketing promotions. We have greatly improved our communication to our stockist via newsletters, order status reports and product bulletins and this has been supported with improvements operationally brought about by investing in IT and streamlining procedures. For the future, I am really excited about the new website we are developing, which I think will be a fantastic resource for our stockists and a big draw for consumers. There are numerous other projects on which I don’t want to give the game away but I am sure will add real value for our stockists.
 
What is your favourite pastime?

Travel, watching sport (literally any sport), cooking, eating out and wine.

Are you for or against the smoking ban?

For it.


'Live to work’ or ‘work to live’?

“Live to live” – enjoy everything