Behind the scenes with…Mackenzie & George.
Is running a business all it’s cracked up to be, is it really as easy as it looks from the outside? We talk to Melanie, who co-founded Mackenzie & George to get the lowdown on building a business…
Mackenzie & George are based in Shropshire.
Quick Facts :-
Established in August 2012 by Chris Clarihew and his wife, Melanie.
Micro British brand, designing and manufacturing high end leather goods for their country and equestrian audience.
They are passionate about making classic and stylish products that are built to last.
As part of ‘The Journey’, we wanted to ensure that we talked to a good cross-section of people in the countryside community and given that there are a plethora of country businesses out there, we were delighted when Melanie, Co-founder of Mackenzie & George, agreed to chat to us.
M&G are well-known on the country show circuit, as well as through their wholesale and e-commerce branches of the business. Though, all too often, we look at a brand’s presence online and think how easy it must be for them, now they’re a well-known brand (and if you’re a small business owner, this is often followed by questioning why you might be finding it so difficult yourselves).
So, let’s lift the lid on that perception and explore with Melanie, the realities of running a small, British business, whilst juggling a young family and just generally ‘fitting it all in’.
First a bit of backstory to M&G, one of the countryside’s favourite indie brands;
Trotting back to 2011, Chris and Melanie were both working for Chris’ parents company, making couture leather belts which Chris was selling on Covent Garden Apple Market in London.
However, even though it was a successful family business, the style of the belts were not really to the couple’s taste and together they spent many hours talking about different materials and leather paired with a less glitzy and more traditional style.
Eventually, as often happens in family businesses, it became obvious it was time for them to fly the nest and set up their own company. With a few weeks wages in hand, off they went, armed with a dream and a shed load of passion.
Their dream was to make classic, traditional belts that could be cherished, and eventually be handed down to future generations, standing the test of time and changing styles.
Once they’d made their first pieces, they boldly booked their first show at the prestigious Burghley Horse Trials, some 11 years ago. Luckily the duo made enough money to book the next show and from there the ball began rolling. They were now a bona fide business!
Those very same founding values have now become an integral part of their process, using them as check and balance on any new ideas they come up with.
Interestingly for a brand nestled in the fashion industry, Mackenzie & George don’t want to be led by the seasons, it is more about encouraging customers to invest in a classic piece that will be timeless and effortlessly support their style throughout the year, for years to come.
We asked Melanie how the journey over the past decade has been; from starting a business to growing a business, and adding their two beautiful girls into the mix and becoming a family.
Emma asks, “On Instagram, we see a successful business with a really clear brand and a lot of customer fans, but what has is really been like?”
Melanie laughed as she reflects, “It’s definitely been a mixture of ups and downs. When we started it was just Chris and I and we had few responsibilities, we could work 18 hour days and it wasn't a problem as we only had ourselves to worry about. When we weren’t at work, we were talking about work - one of the joys/frustrations of working with your partner! But… it was hard, really hard, we made a lot of sacrifices compared to other 25 years olds, we couldn’t go on holiday or go out because we were busy building our business.”
Talking of adding children to the mix, Melanie goes on to explain how, “then we had our first child, and we naively thought that we would just block off a corner of the workshop beside me, and put some play things in there, and she would come to work with us. Obviously, that’s not how it works and children have their own routines and need different focus time.”
A realisation which, one imagines was starkly eye-opening but also offered positives and avenues for growth across both the couple’s personal and professional lives.
"We realised we needed to introduce more structure into the business and find some help on the production side of things, and Joe joined us, who is now our Production Manager.
It was mind-blowing at first as neither of us had any management experience, and we worked so tightly together that it was tricky bringing someone else into the mix. As time went on, and we adjusted to the change and the need for it, we introduced other people into the production side of things. We now have a Customer Service Manager which made a lot of difference. It went from me and Chris rushing around, firefighting the most pressing thing, to being able to sit back and plan the future more.”
Turning her attention to the here and now, Melanie says, “now we have two girls at school, which again, brought in a different dynamic to manage. Our days are shorter [as a result] and it has further implications when we go away to shows.”
Trade shows across the circuit are an integral part of the business for Chris and Melanie. Not only can they be hugely lucrative, it gives customers the opportunity to connect with the duo in person, the value of which cannot be overlooked.
“Our busiest times are summer and Christmas, times when everyone else is doing lots of activities with their families, and that’s hard. But we spend more time with the girls in other holidays. It’s a constant attempt at balancing lots of things that are competing for your time.”
It certainly sounds like a really busy lifestyle, and a juggling act, we are sure many of you can relate to in some way, whether that is balancing a job, business or studying alongside a family and social life. Melanie went on to say that part of the way she copes with that is to: think of things as seasons and not trying to do everything at once. So, concentrating on the children here, and the business there, focusing on one thing at a time, means that everything feels a lot easier to manage.
‘Doing little bits of everything, doesn’t move anything forward.’
It’s easy to think that if or when you start a business, it will all progress in a linear way leading to success after a certain period of time. We asked Melanie, ‘if there have been times when they’ve asked themselves if it’s all worth it?’.
Again she laughed, “Absolutely,” she began, “especially in those first few years where it was just Chris and I. I remember one particular Badminton Horse Trials, we’d been up for 36 hours straight making stock and getting everything ready, it was one of the biggest stands we’d taken so far. We’d upgraded from a tent to a mattress in the back of the van with an awning outside and we’d spent all day putting the stand up with all sorts of problems. Then the awning had burst in the van and was useless! I had a proper full-on tantrum about how ridiculous our life was and how hard we were working for very little money.
Then, you start to grow and you have to learn to manage staff. It takes a while to establish a really good team that works well together, and then just when you think things are working, something like Covid comes along, and after it you have to learn to work in the new world we all found ourselves plunged into.”
Through Emma’s business Hiho Silver, she can relate to life as a ‘show brand’ and how easy it is to look at other brand’s stands on Instagram and think looks like a breeze, but actually, like most things, it’s a lot of hard work and time spent behind the scenes. Emma says, “you can slave away and put in the hours, yet not sell much if the weather is bad, or the show layout has moved around and your stand is in a low footfall area. Plus, the biggest outlay of money spent on securing show deposits and ordering stock is typically required within the slowest time of the year - so it’s always a juggle!”
Emma asked Melanie, ‘what keeps you going?’ Her reply was both heartwarming and inspiring, “I want my children to have the childhood I didn’t have.”
She went on to say, “Plus our team is important to us, when we started the company, we wanted to build a business that offered interesting jobs and roles, in an area of high unemployment, so that we could give livelihoods and skills back to the Community. We’ve never looked at it as a race, we’ve always wanted to grow steadily and slowly within our means, maybe to our detriment sometimes, but to us that feels safe and secure.”
Following that mantra has certainly done well for them so far, watch this space!
As with all our interviews, we asked Melanie what advice she would pass on to you, our readers, this is what she said:
“You don’t know what others people’s path has been, or what they’re going through so please remember to be kind. If you see something that you like about someone, give them that compliment as it might transform their day.”
Huge thanks to Melanie for her fascinating, and extremely useful, insights. Let us know in the comments below if you have any further questions to pose to Melanie.