'Diversity is the greatest strength of the British luxury industry': Dunhill's CEO, Andrew Maag, on steering the house through Brexit
With an astonishing new London headquarters designed by the interior architect Linda Morey-Burrows and a rollout of store openings around the world, Dunhill CEO Andrew Maag is charged with making sure that the historic house faces these tumultuous times in Britain with confidence.
He started his career as a menswear buyer in New York, then moved on to work for brands such as Banana Republic and Donna Karan before being hired by Burberry, where he, alongside Angela Ahrendts and Christopher Bailey, helped transform the sleepy British label into an international fashion powerhouse.
Two years ago Maag moved to Dunhill, a house with an incredible past: Alfred Dunhill inherited his father’s saddlery business at the age of 21 in 1893 and turned its leather craft towards the glorious age of automobiles in the early 20th century. The CEO promptly hired a new creative director in the form of Mark Weston, who he had worked with at Burberry, going on to relaunch its catwalk shows in Paris and focusing on the marriage of craftsmanship and style.
Here, the American-born businessman explains how lessons he learnt 40 years ago are still relevant today, and why luxury brands should think like restaurants.
To make a heritage brand relevant for a new generation you have to tell its story.
When I joined Dunhill I discovered a beautiful 125-year-old story just waiting to be told. And telling this in a relevant way to a new consumer is still our biggest challenge. If you want to buy a bag you can start by comparing price and quality – but the story of how it was made, of the thought and engineering that went into it is, hopefully, what makes a true luxury brand successful.
You can find inspiration in the smallest thing.
The Dunhill archive in Walthamstow is incredible, and Mark is always being inspired by the things he discovers there. For example, the idea for our new logo bags came from a old photograph he found in there of Frank Sinatra and his fourth wife, Barbara. In it a sheikh was presenting the couple with presents from Dunhill, and Mark took the design from the carrier bags they came in.
Don’t get hung up on expense.
I started my career as a menswear buyer for the New York store Charivari. I remember going to Milan on a buying visit in 1980 and seeing a corduroy shirt that I thought was amazing but, at $500, way too expensive. When I told my boss this he said, “Don’t think about the price. Do you really love it? Is it something a customer would want? If so, just buy a small number.” That’s stayed with me.
Look at the cut and thrust of restaurants, and learn from them.
A chef once told me that he never looked at what everyone ate, he looked at what he had to throw out. It’s always about the trash can – look at what the customer didn’t want, and don’t do that again. I tell the team we have to compare ourselves to a restaurant. Why would we make anything we wouldn’t want to eat? It should all be delicious.
Diversity is one of the greatest strengths of the British luxury industry.
There are 26 different nationalities working in this office and we speak around 10 languages. The diversity of London is what makes it the greatest city in the world. I hope that we don’t lose this. Britishness is one of our codes that talks about who we are and where we’ve come from, whereas the diversity talks about how as a modern company we tackle our problems and address our challenges.
It made me mad that we charged for alterations.
You’ve bought a suit, and then you get an extra cost just to be able to wear it properly? It annoyed me, so from this month we’re taking that fee off the table. It’s always a case of thinking about what our customers need and want. They’ve booked to have a suit made, so what might they need? Let’s send them a car to pick them up. These little things achieve so much. They’ve booked to have a suit made, so what might they need? Let’s send them a car to pick them up. These little things achieve so much.
The knowledge of skins, of pattern making, of engineering: those are the foundation of what we do.
At our facility in Walthamstow, there are two people who have just retired and one of them has been with us for 59 years and the other for 54 years. I think the trick is to make a craftsman’s job interesting. And that’s where technology helps, because you are now working with more interesting materials and you have tools that do things smarter, faster and better.
To get the best you have to create the right environment.
Our old headquarters was a six-storey townhouse, so the teams were physically separated and couldn’t communicate effectively. The new headquarters are on just two floors, and we have punched holes through, so every department is flooded with light. As the walls are glass, we can see where everyone is. There’s no escape!
It’s all about joy.
So much of what we sell is hope. You hope you are going to have a great experience, and if you work hard you want to enjoy your money.We can help our customer do that.
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