You may not know who Cath Kidston is and what her business offers. But in the last two decades she has created a brand that now has 34 shops in the UK and Ireland, eight in Japan, and one in Kuwait, with a turnover in excess of £30 million, and a staff of over 650.
Cath left school keen to find a career that enabled her to ‘enjoy, create and make a living’. She was unsure what this would be but recognised her strengths as a ‘visual learner’, and that she loved both shops and shopping. It seemed that the retail world would be an area that would allow her to develop. She began work at 17 as a sales assistant and was fortunate at the age of 24 to be employed by Nicky Haslam, a wellrespected interior designer. Cath spent the next 3 years learning the trade before branching out on her own with her first shop in 1993, selling vintage fabrics, wallpapers and brightly-painted junk furniture. The decision to open her first store in Holland Park was partly determined by location — an affluent area with potential customers — but more by cost. The rent was cheap.
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