A Very Royal Town Hall Meeting for Friday 5th May
On the eve of the Coronation of King Charles III, Romain hosted our scheduled Town Hall Meeting, with guest speakers from the Finance Team Benjamin Hodgson, Bernardo Rojas, Jonathan Spight and Liam O’Sullivan, who, in an engaging dialogue, demystified the FC1 (Forecast 1) process.
However, Romain introduced this session with a reminder of the royal connection that Winsor & Newton had.
First awarded the Royal Warrant by Queen Victoria when they were commissioned to make the famous Series 7 brush, Winsor & Newton still hold the Royal Warrant, currently awarded by Prince Charles and soon in his new capacity as King.
With much to be proud of during this royal period, Romain continued highlighting Winsor & Newton’s significant brand positioning and marketing opportunities.
Firstly, by highlighting the Winsor & Newton featured artist, Andrew Jamieson, who recently received the honour of designing and painting the invitation for the Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla, which he created using Winsor & Newton watercolour and gouache.
Secondly, celebrating the launch of the Sandringham Set is because of a request from the Sandringham Estate, on behalf of the King, to curate and produce an exclusive, bespoke set of watercolours which could be used to re-create his painting of Sandringham.
In other business, Romain provided a high-level summary of the annual brand preference survey. We investigate over 5,000 artists from the UK, North America and France each year and interrogate their brand knowledge, preference, and usage. Some of the key results include:
- In the UK: There is a strong preference for Winsor & Newton across the 10 categories of products. Winsor & Newton scored 1st in 9 out of 10 categories.
- In North America: Winsor & Newton and Liquitex hold the top spots across 6 categories.
- Brand consideration has lowered; however, usage has increased.
- In France: Our brands are #1 or 2 in 8 out of 10 categories. We know significant work must be done to rebuild and relaunch the Lefranc Bourgeois brand.
April Finance figures include:
- We achieved GBP10M in net revenue sales YTD – this is GBP500K below budget.
- All brands struggled to meet the target, except Snazaroo, which saw double-digit growth.
- Our results are more positive YTD compared to last year (+2%), but we still need all brands, all factories, all markets and all corporate areas to contribute to ensuring our future success.
Romain then passed the session to guest speakers from the Finance team, whose topic was FC1 – Forecast1. We found out more on this subject when we asked them the following questions:
- What is FC1?
- Why is FC1 so important?
- Why does it take to deliver the final results?
- Who is involved, and how do those people connect and collaborate?
- What are our responsibilities to our owner, Lindegruppen
- What is the high-level overview of FC1?
If you missed the live session, catch up by watching the recording below.
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