Small & medium business

Like Jamie Murray Wells, Bennett bypassed regular employment and launched the business straight from university. He did, however, hold an MBA which gave him the boost to follow this path.

The idea for A Suit That Fits came during a gap year  spent teaching maths in Nepal. He had a tailored suit made during his stint and became friends with the tailors. So impressed was he with the quality and price that he decided it was the ideal opportunity to establish a bespoke service that would charge far less than the traditional tailors.

“We tested out the concept by putting my suit on a dummy in Hampstead market and sold two in 20 minutes. On the back of that we constructed a website overnight and it’s gone from there,” says Bennett. And where exactly it’s gone is into a company that they believe produces more bespoke suits annually than all of Savile Row. It has had 14,000 orders to date, a turnover of £1.2 million and now employs 70 tailors in Nepal.

Made to measure

The company has used a number of strategies to overcome the obvious handicap of making made-to-measure suits in such a removed manner. “It’s the choice, individuality and affordability factors. The suits start from £150 and that’s quite compelling for goods of this quality. Then there’s convenience,” says Bennett.

When it comes to measuring, there are three options. People can do it online – all they need is a partner to help. Then an intelligent database checks the measurements and highlights any that look out of the ordinary. The more cautious can pay £25 to be measured at one of the London stores. The third option, which is useful for those within the M25, is to call out a tailor for a £40 fee.

“We’re never knowingly going to leave anyone feeling dissatisfied with their suit – it would defeat the purpose of having the name we do. We charge £40 for any retrospective fitting, and make sure the profile is perfect for the future. Once the customer has a great profile there’s no reason to go anywhere else,” he says. They have a first-time fit rate of about 85 per cent and this has paid dividends, with repeat business accounting for about a third of sales.

Bennett has also established good ethical business practice. The company pays its tailors 50 per cent over the standard local rate and they put five per cent of all operating costs into the school in Nepal where Bennett used to teach.

“The corporate social responsibility policy has always been central to how we do business. Without it, I don’t think we’d have the level of support we’ve achieved, or sustained the 20 per cent growth month-on-month for the first two years that has come about as a result,” he adds.

With 40 billion possible style combinations, site functionality has to be very high. The company reviews it each month and much of the development comes from customer feedback. “We want users to review their suits so we”re also going to introduce browsing by occasion – business, wedding or leisure, rather than by fabric,” says Bennett.

Warren Bennett’s five top tips on goods produced overseas

• Look for the very best of local talent and make sure you attract and retain that talent by rewarding fairly.
• Play to the strengths of your overseas suppliers. For example, our team in Nepal are brilliant at processes, which means that we know if we specify it in the right way, it”ll always come back right.
• Establish good communication through a common platform. Everyone here gets the same information from the website; we see what the tailor sees. Building personal relationships is really important too.
• You need a lot of patience in the early stages. Inevitably, there is going to be a language barrier and an element of misunderstanding to work through.
• Build both sets of cultures into the business. We celebrate the biggest Nepali festival, Dasain, by giving a holiday to the tailors and operating with a skeleton staff.

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