LicensingSource catches up with Bethan Garton and Will Stewart, the agency’s founder, to find out more about the recent restructure and how it will allow the company to grow further.
Firstly, Bethan, congratulations! Can you explain how your role is changing? What is your new title, what will the new role involve, will you still retain parts of your previous role?
Bethan: My role isn’t changing a huge amount at this exact moment, but over the last 12 months, while Will and I have been planning the future of the business, I have already been acting as cco and wherever possible taking on the running of The Point.1888 to allow Will to focus on new business areas.
My new title is chief commercial officer of The Point.1888, and the key focus will be the overall running of business, including all commercial aspects, brand management, licensee partnerships, product development, retail, legal and finance.
I will also focus on our international growth and expand on what we have achieved in the last two years with more brands taking us on to represent globally or across multiple territories.
With the restructure I have four amazing direct reports: Lynne Chappell, head of legal; Hannah Stevens, retail director; Janine Richmond, head of brand and product; and Katie Wilkinson, head of publishing and operations. They will manage their own teams, and between us all, there is a powerhouse of knowledge and experience that compliments each other perfectly. Will and I are true believers in hire people better than you and our team really reflects that.
And Will, what does this mean for you? What will your key focuses be on now?
Will: (I’m retiring – haha!) With Bethan in the position of cco she will continue to build The Point.1888 into the globally recognised agency delivering the next generation of brand licensing that we always dreamed it would be.
Bethan has a long-distinguished career in licensing, with more years of experience than me, and is therefore the right person to take the business forward. Bethan has worked on some of the biggest brands in the world – Star Wars, Barbie, Fisher-Price, Coca-Cola, the Simpsons, L.O.L. Surprise! and CoComelon to name just a few. With experience managing pretty much every category in licensing at some point during her career, she is perfectly placed to take The Point.1888 to the next level, while inspiring and motivating the amazing team we have built at The Point.
My role of founder and ceo has a different focus now as we build our new businesses. Both Story & Spotlight have the potential to grow into £1m turnover businesses in the next 12 months and it’s my job to work with Sarah Crimes (marketing director) and Hannah Stevens (retail director) to help guide them through the scale up phase. I will also be working with Martin McLaughlin (strategy director) to build the newest opportunities that our brand can explore.
Despite the difficulties of the last two years, we have grown the business in every way you can measure it and that gives us a huge opportunity as the world reappears to expand and extend our own Point.1888 brand.
It’s extremely exciting times for our business.
How has the past 12 months seen both Story and Spotlight grow?
Will: Story.1888, our creative marketing agency, has been a huge success and is already three years ahead of where The Point was in the same timeframe. Having Sarah back from maternity really allows us to prioritise where we can add value and capitalise on our strengths. Clients we have supported over the last 12 months include The Raccoons, Comic Relief, Marks & Spencer, Turtle Bags, Flip Out, Birch Box to name just a few. Story 1888 delivers everything from strategy, style guides and event activations, social media management and much more.
Bethan: Spotlight.1888, our retail agency, has moved ridiculously quickly so far, since its official launch at BLE last year to where it is now, with multiple live client partnerships.
The beauty of the three businesses is they all complement each other so well and allow us to work with clients in an ultraflexible way. We get many brands and retailers asking us to do specific projects for them, and with the set up of the separate companies we are now even better placed to give a dedicated service which never disappoints.
Today there isn’t anybody we would not be able to work with. As long as the people are purpose driven, kind and loyal we will explore where we can add value and which business would be most suitable.
What can we expect to see going forward across the divisions?
Will: We have a lot to announce but I’m certainly not going to steal the thunder of my directors – so watch this space.
Bethan: The Point.1888 has an exciting year ahead. We are busier than ever with new product areas coming to market and brands who are new to licensing on board. It’s always exciting to see the end result no matter where you are in the business.
Are there other structural changes which are also being made as The Point.1888 continues to grow? Promotions, further hires, changes in roles, etc?
Bethan: We always take a look at the business structure in February – we call it the ‘Feb reshuffle’. In a fast growth business, we have to constantly evolve our resources, reporting lines and almost constantly be looking for new talent.
In the last 12 months we have hired nine new tribe members to allow our new brands the focus they deserve. The most important thing to us as a business is to ensure we never let anyone down and offer the best service possible – and the feedback we get from retailers, licensees and brand owners is testament to this. And to maintain this level we have to ensure we are always on top of resources.
We also want to ensure that all our team members are happy and fulfilled with their role and therefore being able to move things around every now and then so they can work in a new area or focus on a passion of theirs is really important to us.
Will: Bethan has worked across brand owners, agencies, and licensees, I have worked as a buyer and that makes us very well placed to know what all three expect and need from us as an agency. My role as ceo is to ensure that all areas of the business deliver on our promises.
What are the key aims for The Point.1888 in 2022? What would both of you like to achieve during the year?
Will: Enjoy life and business again. Enjoy getting out to see real humans in person and get ready for the greatest summer of all our lives. Year seven of our journey was all about moving from disruption to leadership with our purpose led businesses. Year eight is our ‘Moonshot year’ because that is when things really start moving for us, so being ready for when things take off is key.
Bethan: The Point.1888 works across various sectors of licensing – entertainment, publishing, sports, design and lifestyle, charities… and off the back of various successes in these sectors, we will be launching athlete and talent partnerships.
We are also focusing on the digital space and working with many new partners to bring our brands to life in the digital world and to bring digital brands to life in our more traditional licensing world.
International is a personal passion of mine and there will be new news to share in the run up to Licensing Expo on an initiative to support agents around the world. Personally, I am training to be a Cub Scout Assistant and am absolutely loving it – although controlling a group of 8–10 year olds can be challenging at time, but they do make me laugh a lot.
Will: I always say it’s a life/work balance not a work/life balance and having scout leaders, refugee volunteers, student mentors in our tribe proves what I set out to achieve with The Point.1888, life comes first people strategy. Many people advised against flexible working, unlimited holidays, etc but I stood firm, and it has paid back tenfold as allows me to hire amazing talent – time is more valuable than money.
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