Hobbycraft

We spent weeks travelling the country speaking to employees across the business to ‘craft the future’ of national retailer Hobbycraft. Get ready for all of the craft puns.

Hobbycraft is a UK retailer selling supplies for painting, sewing, knitting, crocheting, baking, jewellery making, paper maché-ing… It is craft heaven to its customers, and its employees are just as passionate and knowledgeable about all things artistic.

But Hobbycraft were finding that often, a ‘stitch was dropped’ when it came to the customer experience. Instead of which being purely about creativity, passion and inspiration, staff were often tied up with unnecessary admin and process, which took them away from essential time on the shop floor.

So when the leadership team at Hobbycraft asked us to help ‘craft’ a 5 year plan to shape the next 5 years of the business, we got stuck in.

We conducted a review of the entire company, spending time in stores across the country, in the national distribution centre and in head office, speaking to both employees and customers, in order to help us ‘paint a picture’ of a typical day in the life of a Hobbycraft colleague.

With insights gathered from across the business, we ‘stitched together’ a plan for Hobbycraft, advising on everything from the company’s overarching strategic vision, down to the operational details of things such as click and collect, ensuring that customer needs are the ‘glue’ for everything Hobbycraft does.