Interview with Sue – 16/02/16

 

 

Sue Pritchard, founder of The Lavender Hill Company started out as a chef but knew something was missing, after going back to college she explored her love of floristry and soon began working her way up in florists before startteing her own company.

 

20 years later Pritchard had just opened her second store in Farnham, Surrey and sat down with HARDING to bare all about the pits and peaks of owning your own business.

 

 

As I wonder in to The Lavender Hill Company, sitting pretty on the corner of Frensham Road, I'm greeted by beautiful scents of summer, gorgeous shabby chic furniture and an abundance of mother’s day ready gifts.

 

I'm early so take a walk around making a mental note to tell my fiancé about this place – its like an Aladdin’s cave of beautiful home décor – it’s the kind of store any man couldn’t go wrong in when shopping for birthday presents!

 

Moment’s later, founder, Sue Pritchard walks in and greets me with a kiss on the cheek and apology for getting there after me, she explains they’re in the process of moving stores and so was at the other property packing boxes. After making a cup of tea, we sit down in the consolation area and begin chatting!

 

Sue tells me of her struggles in the beginning and how far she has come with the Lavender Hill “I started the company working from home, from my garage and shed. That has to have been 15 or 20 years ago now! It soon grew and grew and I ended up having vases and flowers and foliage in every room in the house – which didn’t go down very well with my husband!!

 

So then my first shop came up, I was a little apprehensive because I knew my business had to grow a lot to make it in a store, but I didn’t really just want to get a bigger workshop, I'm not a solitary person, I need people to give me my energy, so I took the chance and it’s blossomed!”     Enter Illustration Here

 

Her day to day routine goes like this…

 

Open up in the morning

Make a cup of tea                  Enter Illustration Here

Condition new flowers

Check the flower stand        Enter Illustration Here

Clean the water

Bleach the buckets

Look at the day’s orders

Look at the emails              Enter Illustration Here   

Then just get on with making the daily orders.

 

“By the afternoon, that’s when you get time to have a little bit more fun with design work for the shop, like doing the window displays and things. It’s the afternoon really when you can actually stop and think creatively because you're sort of head down and getting on with it in the morning.

 

So afternoons are my favorite times when I get to light all of the candles and make it look really beautiful. And that’s my day really – but every day is different because I might have a big wedding on – today a lady came in that was grieving for her grandson, she wanted a funeral tribute quite quickly so although you can plan your day, it actually doesn’t always go to plan so you end up having to stay late, and the things you plan to do end up just getting left for the next day.”