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w e’re focusing on Dishy, DavidFox’s latest breakout range forOCee Design. It’s got that

trademark Fox understated elegance, subtletouches that add value – and is clearly goingto be a volume seller in the corporate andhospitality markets. Dishy’s got ‘squarial’corners inspired by ceramic tableware and areally restrained light touch with a hint ofmid-century. We’re big Fox fans, butunusually for a Focus piece, we’re not goingto dwell too much on the design processthat ultimately resulted in Dishy.

Instead, we’re going to look at Dishyfrom a marketing perspective. In manyways, Dishy is much more than a welldesigned soft seating series. This is astandard bearer, a statement, a declaration ofintent. Dishy is the physical manifestation ofa company’s cultural change.

We’re talking with OCee’s MD AlistairGough and Marketing Manager KateMulcahey. The conversation is disarminglyfrank, and sets out a crystal clear plan. Thatclarity comes in part from professional livesoutside the office interiors; perhaps it’seasier to see the wood from the trees thatway. But there is also a fascination with, anda fondness for, the interiors industry. Nonames, no packdrill, but that’s not always the

Dishy of the Day‘Dishy is, in a sense, the beginning. Dishy, from amarketing perspective, is a statement, it’s ‘This is me’.’

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case when entrepreneurs buy furniturecompanies.

We asked Alistair how he came to workwith David Fox on Dishy. The enthusiasticanswer focused absolutely on the culture,portfolio, marketing and business plan that’srapidly changing the company.

‘I invested in OCee Design in May2010. At that time I found a company witha very positive service culture – ourcustomers enjoyed our reliability. But theproblem was our product portfolio,dominated by ‘me-too’ operator chairs. Weoffered good service and were generallyeasy to do business with…but the productportfolio and marketing collateral had itslimitations.

‘We put together a business plan after astringent SWOT analysis. The result wasthat we actually implemented a culturechange at OCee. We asked ourselves thebasic questions: Where are we? Where dowe want to be? How do we get there? Wereviewed all of our marketing activity and

concluded we needed new collateral, newphotography, a new website. We needed PRtoo – we had no profile. We were knownand respected – but only by those whoalready knew us.

‘And critically, we needed to address ourproduct portfolio in order to differentiateourselves from the competition. In the taskseating market it’s highly competitive withdecreasing margins. We could see that therewere gaps to fill – an example is withmeeting chairs – we recognise that theinformal/agile meeting and breakout areasector is coming to the fore.

‘We saw an opportunity in soft seating toallow differentiation for reasonableinvestment, and at the same time makequicker progress. We could also build on anexisting soft seating portfolio – theupholstery skills are in place. In addition toproduct portfolio issues, we were onlyengaging with a limited sector of themarket. We had very good relationshipswith a number of dealers, but not enough

of those that specialised in the larger morevaluable projects.

‘When we started the new initiatives inMay 2010 we had a turnover of £4 million.Of that, 85% was operator seating, with thebalance soft and occasional seating. We wereonly strong in one sector and we wanted tobroaden our appeal to specialist fit-out anddesign and build projects, where a widerrange of higher value products are required.

‘Two years later, it’s changed dramatically.We now have 70% sales of task seating. It’simportant to make the differentiation –operator chairs with standard componentsnow represent a smaller percentage of theportfolio. And our higher value soft seatingportfolio has grown from 10% of turnoverto 30%, whilst sales have risen to £6.5million. We are in a strong financial positionand our profitable growth has enabled us tocontinue to invest even in a difficult market.Continued growth in seating and theacquisition of the UK and Ireland licencefor the unique Kite table system means that

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we’re on course to grow that top line figureto £9.5 million by May 2013.’

Just in case we’ve forgotten, this successflies in the face of high quality competitionin a tough economy. Where is that growthcoming from?

‘Our dealer profile has certainly changed;there are more dealers now who areworking on larger projects. We’ve got bettersales staff too: every salesperson had grownbusiness in their area by 40-55%. Thisgrowth is across the board too – even ourentry level products have grown sales well.

‘The soft seating portfolio has grownsignificantly in the last two years. In May2010 it consisted primarily of Dorchester,Giggle and Klub. Two years later, Solace isestablished, as is OCee, with recentlyintroduced products such as Touch, Dotsand Dashes and Dishy all winning business.We’ve also introduced our Bistro collection,which combines well with our soft seatingin breakout areas.’

Where do you want to be?‘We’re working on clearer segmentation:

different offers to different areas in differentways…with a different package,’ saysMarketing Manager Kate Mulcahey. ‘Weneed to evaluate the portfolio and improveour channel segmentation so that a dealermight look to us for a variety of productsolutions and not just one model.

‘We want to continually add value to ourdealer network so that they promote ourfull range of relevant products to theirmarket sector.

‘As ever we are investing to maintain andimprove our quality. Our new upholsterytraining programme is providing the nextgeneration of OCee craftsmen. All of ourmarketing activities have brought us to agood place, which is great, but we don’twant to settle for that!’

‘Dishy, from a marketing perspective, is astatement, it’s ‘This is me’ – look at theproduct. Now we need more products in

that vein. We’re now saying ‘You know theOCee brand and the good things that itrepresents, now look at the product. It’scementing the relationship – a key supplierthat you can trust.’

‘Dishy is, in a sense, the beginning,’ addsAlistair, ‘as we build the portfolio and buildtoo on the relationships we’re beginning toestablish through better engagement,communication and promotion. We’veinvested heavily in CRM and we’ve put oursales team through NLP workshops. It’s allabout maximising everyone’s potential andpersonal capabilities.

‘The next step is to continue to developour product portfolio, and engage with theA&D and FM companies through ourdealer network. We’re looking hard at howwe achieve that. Kite gives us access to anew set of clients and dealers and hasaccelerated the opportunity.

‘That’s why we need more products likeDishy – unique and exclusive.’

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