TabletopJournal: Dudson is a 200 year old, family owned company with tremendous heritage, with still plenty of Dudson family members involved in the company. When did you join Dudson and what is/are your role(s) currently? 
TJ: Dudson has undergone a great deal of organizational change in North America in the past several years. What has been the thought process behind that change? Is the change over? And, how have the overall results been since the changes began?
NB: So I believe! I understand there were a number of changes in a reasonably short period of time prior to my joining the company and of course I can’t explain the thought process for events that preceded my time here. When I joined, my immediate focus was on identifying our strengths and weaknesses around the three principals of business success; product, people and service. On that basis some changes were made to the team in North America.
I firmly believe that the structure and the team we have in place today in the USA is right for us to deliver our strategy and to build on for future growth. We have some fantastic momentum right now (current year we are more than 20% ahead of last year in the USA) so clearly we’re doing something right in the USA and as such there are no plans for further change. TJ: Approximately a year ago, Dudson received £3 million from the Business Growth Fund to be invested to bring production techniques up-to-date, bolster its workforce, and fund expansion. Can you tell us what that has meant to the company?
NB: The BGF investment was exactly as you have described – it was to allow us to invest in manufacturing expansion here in Stoke-on-Trent; most specifically to drive manufacturing capacity in our Evolution line, demand of which has increased exponentially since launch 5 years ago, and also to support our latest launch of new HARVEST. 
The investment was necessary to allow us to keep pace with demand and we can already see and hear that our service levels are improving significantly, although we still have some way to go before we can claim to deliver our ultimate objective of service excellence.
TJ: Dudson has for long time seemed to have a philosophy of innovation and design. And, we absolutely love the new products we see you coming out with lately….for example, HARVEST, EVOLUTION, PRECISION, LUNA….what other directions in terms of products or design might we expect coming from Dudson in the future?
NB: Clearly I can’t tell you what’s in the pipeline, or I’d have to shoot you Dave! What I can tell you is that we plan to fully potentialize on the current “hot” products by expanding shape and colour offerings. We have a structured process in product development now that means we are working on an 18 month horizon, so we have already signed off the product launches that will be on show during NRA 2016, and we are working on the new launches for the end of 2016 as well.
We have an amazing design team at Dudson led by our Design Director, Danny Goodall. Dan and his team are out there right now reviewing food service trends, preparing ideas for these next launches.
We have intentionally repositioned the Dudson brand to become more fun, more relevant and “cooler” and shake off the old fuddy-duddy traditional image. That is reflected in the recent wave of product launches and how we present ourselves in our literature, our showrooms and at exhibitions. The recent NRA booth revolved around a fantastic 1951 vintage tractor to launch Harvest, and that is symbolic of how we are driving our brand image now. 
NB: Chefs are THE target audience for our products, as are the restaurant owners. I always liken a plate to a photo frame – a great photo frame can take an average photo and makes it look special. The biggest compliment to our products is when a chef falls in love with the photo frame and then has to create a photo to put inside it. If we can show the owner that the more beautiful photo frame means he can charge more for the photo, then that’s a sales closed because he sees an immediate return on his investment.
That runs straight through to the guest dining experience. If the diner feels they have gotten value for money then they’re a happy diner. If the plate makes their $20 entree look $25 then they’re a happy, returning customer!
TJ: We know that Dudson is a well-known brand throughout the globe in the world of hospitality. What are some of the recent project successes that Dudson has claimed….not only in North America, but in other parts of the world as, well?
NB: I’m delighted to say that we win our fair share of new projects every week around the world, and too many to name here! A few large, well known brand successes in the last couple of years have included The Shard in London, Melbourne Tennis Club in Australia, The Anaheim Hilton in the USA, The Wyndham in Antalya, Turkey, and we’re fingers crossed right now on a huge project in the UK which we are led to believe is coming our way. 
NB: The Hub has been an unbelievable success. We previously had a traditional showroom in London’s Mayfair district which was perfect to access the 5 star hotel properties in London’s West End. But Dudson has moved on from just being the Park Lane 5 star property supplier, and we wanted our London base to reflect where we are taking the brand, so we relocated to the Shoreditch district of London which is right at the cutting edge of food service innovation anywhere in the world right now. The location allows us to take customers on a food tour of some of the coolest restaurants and bars in London and show them what’s happening at the leading edge of tabletop. As well as changing location, we also changed our presentation, so no more wall fixtures with coconut-shy style presentations. The Hub features really cool, well thought out presentation areas that allow us to best present our products. So fine dining, for example, is presented on an authentic 1970’s glass oval dining table surrounded by plastic moulded white leather inlayed dining chairs, with a chintzy rug and 1970’s bright orange light fitting above. Totally off-the-wall but creates a real “wow” for customers looking at our banquet fine china offering
The Hub also has separate meeting areas so that the Hub becomes a drop in zone for our London based dealer sales people who can bring their customers in and have privacy for their own meetings, as well as introducing Dudson and our products.
TJ: Both, here in America and in other parts of the world, Dudson handles distribution for other brands (for example, Bormioli Rocco in the U.K. and Ireland) Is that a philosophy or trend that we might see continued and expanded?
NB: We have some fantastic relationships across the world with our customers, and those relationships are primarily built on trust. If we have an opportunity to act as a vehicle for other product brands to access those customers, and in return we have the opportunity to build our sales and profit line, then of course we will look to add products to our portfolio that deliver a mutual benefit to us, our customers and those product manufacturers.
Our growth strategy absolutely includes expanding our portfolio of products, but not to the extent that some of our competitors have done. Our business model will always be built around Dudson, the manufacturer of high quality products and our core values of quality, honesty and trust, and we will look to partner with brands that reflect those values. So, yes, you will see that trend continued and expanded, but to a lesser extent than some others done.
TJ: With the first 200 years behind you, there seems to be lots of forward energy at the moment. What should the hospitality tabletop industry look for in the next 200 years of Dudson?
NB: Wow! I can’t even forecast next month’s sales accurately, let alone the next 200 years!
We know what we’re good at and we know where we need to improve. As I said earlier, our success is built on product, people, and service. We have the first two elements pretty much nailed down now, so our immediate focus as a company is our service. We’ve gone from bad to ok, and now we need to move to good and then excellent. We’re moving in the right direction and, in a couple of years, I believe we’ll be there.
As for product gracing the tabletop in 200 years time……..we are looking at an 18 month horizon line, but I do believe that the move to serving food on weird and wonderful vehicles is a fad and that the ceramic plate will return to the forefront very soon. No more lumps of concrete or fries served in a sneaker! Chef’s will focus back on the food and stop trying to outsmart each other with the serving vehicle.
In short, we will continue to focus on what we know we do best, and that is manufacture an amazing product, while at the same time focussing on improving our service levels and continuing to develop our fantastic team of people.
