Joanna Hauptman's Decorex Journey: From Fashion Publishing to Furniture Excellence

What initially attracted you to exhibit at Decorex all those years ago?

Funnily enough, I worked in a completely different industry. I worked in fashion publishing at the time for Harper's Bazaar and Esquire. Even in my circles of fashion, I'd heard about Decorex and actually went to visit out of curiosity before Hyde House was even a pipe dream. I was aware of it being a destination for high-end interiors.

Then, by serendipity and through a number of strange circumstances, I found myself launching a bespoke furniture company nearly 20 years ago with my business partner at the time, Richard Sell, who was himself a third-generation furniture craftsman. I designed this little capsule collection of furniture, and it just seemed the most natural and obvious place to launch and showcase it. There was never any question - it was Decorex, and there was nowhere else.

I didn't really know how it operated or what it would be like to be an exhibitor there; I'd only been a visitor. So the first year was quite the punt. We were very green behind the ears and designed a very small stand. It was a really extraordinary baptism of fire, being thrown in the deep end with stand setup and all the rest of it. But the rest, as they say, is history, because evidently I've done every year since.

How has that Decorex experience evolved over the years?

It has evolved enormously, and in many respects, it's unrecognisable from the exhibition I first attended. When we started, it was at Royal Hospital Chelsea which is a very auspicious location - beautiful, with wonderful history and heritage. The show has moved around over the years due to its growth, a victim of its own success.

We were at Syon House for many years, which had great fun plundering through muddy fields and stomping over camps to get to our stand. It was infinitely charming in its own way and very special, though it was challenged with access to and from London. Then we had a stint at Kensington Palace for a year, which was a fun privilege as well. Now we're at Olympia London.

As a result of being at Olympia, it's quite a different kettle of fish from what it started as in terms of the experience. But the fundamentals remain the same - it is still the leading interiors exhibition and still imperative in bringing together brands and the industry. Whilst it's morphed over the years, it doesn't diminish the role it plays in the UK interiors industry.

What aspects of Decorex make it stand out compared to other events you've exhibited at?

I think the difference with Decorex is that it's such a stalwart - so established. We have done other shows, but Decorex is a destination. It's something everybody puts in their diary year after year. The size and breadth of the offering is extremely established, and it very successfully brings together the leaders in the industry, the authority in the industry, along with the finest makers, manufacturers, suppliers, and brands.

I think it's the breadth of its reach as well. It supports and develops new talent, brings new talent on board. I can speak for that because I launched my tiny little business there and was welcomed into the community - because it very much is a community. After nearly two decades, I'm now seeing newcomers springing up and coming into the industry. It's an interesting transition to have gone from a startup to an established business.

It's a juggernaut, really. The interaction, the interactivity of the discussions, the events, the forums - bringing in so many different threads across the industry together, weaving them all together. That's why it's as successful as it is. There's nothing like it. It sits uniquely in the marketplace.

On a more personal level, what are some of the memorable moments or highlights from your time exhibiting at Decorex?

Some fun parties over the years, I will say! But it's the environment itself that's interesting. I can think of examples where you've accidentally stumbled upon somebody walking past your stand, you start up a conversation, and within a year's time, you've gotten hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of orders from them.

It's fishing in a pond where everybody is there, and the connective tissue is that we all want to do business. We all want to showcase our collections and have conversations that lead to things. The interiors industry has a long lead time, so we find it can be a question of years building up a relationship, seeing people year after year at the show. This really creates a sense of trust and faith and connection with our brand, because it takes a leap of faith to work with new suppliers, particularly on bespoke furniture. There's an element of risk for designers and specifiers.

Collaborations That Transform Business

There's a reassurance in seeing us return year after year at the show - it really builds our brand. We've had some amazing conversations and incredible collaborations. It's given us a platform to collaborate over the years with Heathfield, Holmes Bespoke, and Soho Lighting. When you meet like-minded brands that you dovetail well with in the industry, it's a wonderful opportunity to collaborate. In that respect, it's very rare but very valuable.

This year, I'm super excited about the number of collaborations we have for the stand. I feel a sense of pressure to always come up with newness - to be inspired at the beginning of the year, to come up with a completely different furniture collection direction that shapes what we're capable of. You need to feel very inspired to deliver for Decorex.

How has exhibiting at Decorex contributed to your brand visibility in the market and your business growth?

It's interesting because in my naivety at the beginning, I used to take an order book. After the first Decorex, I realised there's no point taking an order book - you're not taking orders on the stand. One has to manage one's expectations.

It's really about building relationships, creating new networks, enlarging your database, then building upon that. It's a foundation from which to build one's sales over the year. We see it cyclically - it's the opportunity to cast the net across the industry, from which we get great one-to-one feedback. Meeting and talking to people face to face is extremely valuable in comparison to just Zooms and Teams, because having clients see and feel our product is paramount.

That's why Decorex is so invaluable to us. We have showrooms, but it's really the opportunity to showcase our craftsmanship, start those conversations, make introductions and associations with the key movers and shakers in the industry, and then develop that over the years.

From a branding perspective, I think it's imperative. The collaborations we've done have been amazing areas of growth for us. The longevity - building our brand over nearly 20 years, being a stalwart of Decorex - has garnered respect within the industry and an expectation to see us year after year. We do develop the sales and convert these contacts to business, but because the business is a strange one, it's impossible to forecast which projects are going to come your way, the length of time they're going to run for, and when the installation dates will be. It's an organic process, if I'm really honest.

What type of audience do you typically engage with at Decorex, and how does this align with your target market?

For us, the number one priority is interior designers and specifiers, procurement companies, and architects - anybody who would be involved in the design process who would be specifying bespoke furniture. We don't retail, so we're business to business (B2B). Having teams of interior designers reaching from stand to stand, whilst we're simultaneously setting up appointments to meet with the clients we know and want to meet with - it's very targeted. It is industry-based: interior designers, specifiers, architects, and procurement companies.

Have you formed any long-term partnerships or collaborations as a result of exhibiting at Decorex?

Yes, I can think of two specifically that are pretty extraordinary. I remember one year we were exhibiting and saw this enormous hub of people - a frenzy on a stand. Day after day I kept saying to my colleagues, "What on earth's going on over there? It just looks like a party and I want to be part of it."

I wandered over, and of course it was the magnificent Lee Lovett from Soho Lighting, who was holding court with this extraordinary throng around her stand day in, day out. We got to know her well, the product (which is fantastic), and the team, and became great friends. It was a wonderful opportunity because the brands were so aligned to collaborate the following year, which we did.

The same could be said for Leila at Holmes Bespoke. We got to know her so well by being at the show together, with the similarities between ourselves and these brands and the target audience we're working with. We've built a fantastic relationship with her, doing a bespoke collection collaboratively for her stand the following year and vice versa, and even now showcasing in her brand new showroom in Chiswick.

It's really been an invaluable source of relationship building. Opportunities have been created as a result of getting to know the brands we sit alongside. I don't really see another scenario where that would be viable. Whilst we may go to industry events, there's something very specific about exhibiting alongside other brands. It's the intensity of the situation and the time spent that really fosters very close relationships. It's very collaborative and helpful.

If you were speaking to a potential exhibitor, what would you say to convince them to invest in Decorex?

I think they would struggle to find anything that competes with it if they are looking to target the interior design industry as a whole and to be sitting amongst the most important brands in the industry - really to represent best of British as well.

Whilst there are obviously very established exhibitions around the world, we are talking about the UK market first and foremost. In that realm, I don't think there is anything that could really compare. It's the size of the show, the number of attendees, the reach, and how very established it is within the calendar of anybody within the industry. Its history and heritage mean it's absolutely rooted in its previous success.

If you were a new brand coming through, you wouldn't really have any other exhibition that would compare in terms of those deliverables. Whilst there are others - and some are fantastic, and we're involved in some others - they're much more targeted, smaller, and not quite the same offering. It's not comparing like for like.

Have you got any tips or tricks that you've learned over the years that have helped you maximise success at Decorex for those newcomers?

Over the years, we've had some really large stands and moved around. We started very small and grew and grew. We ended up with massive 12-plus metre stands with three different room sets. We've gone through all different iterations creatively - I can remember doing a stand like an art gallery exhibition with installations.

But what it fundamentally boils down to is networking and the conversations you have with the people who attend. We're very fortunate - we have an incredible stand at the entrance that stands alone, and we're very happy there. But it is fundamentally about the interaction and spending the time to have those really valuable connections and conversations to develop opportunities, business, and ideas.

Marketing Before, During, and After

We designed a bar last year and have one coming this year. I think that's a really lovely way of having the interaction. Using one's own marketing to really support what you're doing is important. We start talking about Decorex on our mail shots and social media well in advance of October - we start a teaser campaign from before the summer. It's really important to build in everybody's subconscious that you're going to be showing there. Make it a destination, make the time to come down and visit, see the brand new collection, come and see the quality of our pieces, come and have those conversations.

There's work to be done prior to showing and post, once you've collected all that data capture. Then the work begins - I always say then the hard work begins, because you've got to really pursue those leads and build on those conversations and communication.

Is there anything else you'd like to add about your Decorex experience?

Decorex is all of our investment - all of our time, money, and attention. We design a collection for it every year, and it's the most important marketing initiative for us all year round. We don't have a PR company or marketing company, so we consider Decorex a partner, essentially. It's really, really important and valuable to us.

For us, it's imperative. Having seen the collaborations and things we've done, those have been amazing areas of growth. The longevity of building our brand over nearly 20 years, being a stalwart of Decorex, has garnered respect within the industry. It's been an invaluable source of relationship building, and opportunities have been created that simply wouldn't exist otherwise.