The principles upon which The House of FUND is built. These are the rules of our House.
We are an island of outlandish aristocrats, farmers, fisherfolk and seafaring explorers. We need good warm jumpers and a stout sense of humour.
1. MAKE GOOD THINGS, THAT DO GOOD
Three words describe a FUND jumper.
Quality. Luxurious soft 100% Cashmere and Lambswool knitwear, spun in Scotland, with a little British eccentricity woven in for good measure.
Craftsmanship. Handmade in England, using beautiful natural fibres and traditional skills. Designed not for a season, but for a lifetime.
Conscious. Made thoughtfully, responsibly and with purpose.
We believe beautiful things and good intentions can coexist.
In fact, they rather ought to.
2. PUT THE PRODUCT FIRST
There is an old business saying that the customer always comes first.
We think something comes just before them.
The product.
If we make extraordinary knitwear, use exceptional materials, work with brilliant makers and refuse to compromise on quality, then our customers will feel the difference.
Loyalty is not something you ask for.
It is something you earn.
3. TELL A GOOD STORY
Making a beautiful jumper is only half the job. The other half is telling people why it exists. Sharing our story and yours.
We do not consider our knitwear to be a fashion commodity, but rather an item to be loved and cherished. We emblazon each jumper with a meaningful statement. Sharing stories through stitches as people have always done through the traditional arts of embroidery and tapestry work.
4. OWE AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE
We would rather build carefully than borrow recklessly.
Our ambition is to grow without relying on bank debt. If the House requires additional capital to grow, we would rather invite the right people to become part of it than spend our lives answering to a bank.
Nor do we believe warehouses full of unsold jumpers are a sign of success.
We would rather pay a little more to make what we need than make too much of what we don’t.
Behind every wonderfully eccentric brand must sit an exceptionally sensible business.
5. KEEP THE HOUSE SMALL
We have no desire to build an enormous company for the sake of having an enormous company.
We would rather build a remarkable one.
That means finding a small number of unusually talented, interesting and kind people who understand what we are trying to create.
People who bring ideas.
People who care.
People who want to build something rather than simply work somewhere.
A great House is made by the people inside it.
6. CREATE PARTNERS, NOT EMPLOYEES
We rather like the John Lewis idea.
People who help build something should have the opportunity to share in what they have built.
Where possible, those who become an important part of FUND should have the opportunity to own part of FUND too.
Salaries may not always be enormous.
The sense of ownership should be.
7. CHOOSE PARTNERS, NOT MASTERS
Not all shareholders are created equal.
We want investors who believe in what we are building, understand that worthwhile things take time and can remain calm during both excellent years and peculiar ones.
There will be voting and non-voting shares.
Control of the House will not simply be sold to the highest bidder.
We welcome people who want FUND to succeed.
We are less interested in people who want to turn FUND into something else.
8. KNOW THE NUMBERS
This is the slightly less glamorous rule.
It may also be one of the most important.
We want to know where every pound goes.
What everything costs. What margin we make. What stock we own. What is selling. What isn’t. And why.
Good systems give creative people freedom.
If the business is controlled, understood and financially disciplined, the imagination can be completely uncontrolled.
That is exactly how we like it.
9. LOVE WHAT YOU MAKE
We love quality.
We love things that improve with age.
We love history, language, quotations, beautiful houses, odd characters and ideas that make people smile.
We love the people whose work has influenced our lives.
And we love jumpers.
If you spend your days making something you genuinely care about, a little of that feeling inevitably finds its way into the thing itself.
10. HAVE A PURPOSE
The best companies do more than make things.
They change something.
The original reason for FUND was simple: to use business as a way of doing some good in the world.
Our ambition is to support children and communities through education and opportunity, helping people create better futures for themselves.
Profit matters because without it there is no business.
But profit is not the entire point of the business.
That distinction matters to us.
11. DO ONE THING REALLY WELL
We are not trying to become Primark.
We make jumpers.
Very good jumpers.
That is quite enough to be getting on with.
Fashion has a habit of persuading brands that they must eventually make everything from perfume to dog bowls.
We disagree.
The House of FUND is a house of knitwear.
12. BORROW BRAINS, NOT PRODUCTS
While we intend to remain specialists, we love collaborating with people who are brilliant at things we are not.
When we work with another maker or brand, we want to celebrate them properly.
Who made it. Where it came from. Why it exists.
Collaboration should create something neither party would have made alone.
Putting two logos on something is not collaboration.
It is stationery.
13. THINK IN DECADES
Good businesses take time.
Good brands take even longer.
We expect to make mistakes.
We expect some ideas to work magnificently and others to disappear quietly into a cupboard.
That is part of it.
We intend to keep learning, improving and reinvesting in the House.
The compounding effect of putting money, ideas and energy back into a business over many years is far more interesting to us than extracting everything from it today.
Patience is a competitive advantage.
14. BE LUCKY
Luck matters.
Anyone who says otherwise is probably trying to sell a business book.
A wonderful product, clever people and an excellent plan are no guarantee of success.
So we intend to give luck every possible opportunity to find us.
Work hard. Keep our word. Have original ideas. Treat people properly. Help people occasionally without wondering what is in it for us. And remain curious enough to notice an opportunity when one arrives.
15. REMAIN INDEPENDENT
Independence is precious.
William Blake put it rather better:
“I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man’s.”
We would rather build our own system.
It may mean FUND is never the biggest company in the room.
That is perfectly all right.
We would rather it remained distinctive, creative, independent and loved.
16. BE PROUD OF THE HOUSE
Businesses are usually measured in numbers.
Revenue. Margin. Profit. Growth.
They matter.
But we have a few additional measures.
Are we proud of what we made? Did someone keep it? Did someone love it? Did it make them laugh? Was it beautifully made? Did we do some good? Did we enjoy ourselves?
Those numbers never appear on a balance sheet.
Perhaps they should.
17. WORK HARD. GO HOME EARLY.
Sometimes the best work happens at a desk.
Sometimes it happens on a walk.
And occasionally it happens in bed.
FUND is a creative company.
Creative people do not become more talented simply because somebody has made them sit beneath fluorescent lighting until seven o’clock.
When we find brilliant people, we intend to trust them.
Give them space.
Expect a lot.
And then let them go home.
Time is one of the few things nobody can make more of.
We intend to treat it accordingly.
18. KEEP CALM
Businesses become stressful when expectations, costs and reality stop speaking to one another.
So we intend to plan conservatively.
Assume fewer sales than we dream about. Keep fixed costs lower than we could theoretically afford. Hold sensible amounts of stock. And build systems that make the company easy to understand and relatively simple to run.
There will always be good stress.
A new idea. A launch. A deadline. A slightly impossible jumper.
We can live with that.
It is the pointless sort we would rather avoid.
19. LEAVE SOMETHING BEHIND
We do not want to make disposable clothes.
We want to make legacy pieces.
Things made from exceptional materials by skilled people.
Things that can be repaired. Kept. Remembered.
Borrowed by daughters.
Stolen by sons.
Found twenty years later in the back of a wardrobe and immediately worn again.
Longevity comes from materials, craftsmanship and design that does not spend its life chasing fashion.
The greatest compliment we could receive is not:
“Where did you buy that?”
It is:
“I’ve had this for years.”
THE HOUSE OF FUND
Make something worth keeping.
Build something worth belonging to.
And do some good while you’re at it.