Twin brothers Antony and Richard Joseph may not have envisaged running a multimillion-pound homeware business together one day, but they’ve always enjoyed making things.
As children, they spent hours squirrelled away in their family garage with their brothers (also twins) and two sisters. More often than not, their latest crazy contraption wouldn’t work or wasn’t entirely practical. “We once decided to build a sand yacht – like a sailing boat on wheels – but we grew up in landlocked Birmingham and couldn’t have been farther from the beach,” says Richard, CEO of Joseph Joseph. “Sadly it never made it out of the garage.”
They’ve come a long way since then. Fast forward a few decades and the pair have released more than 1,000 colourful, sought-after homeware products in more than 100 countries, built a staff of 250 across offices in London, New York, Tokyo, Paris and Dusseldorf, and won numerous awards for their innovative ideas. From laundry baskets that fold flat for easy storage to shelves that expand to fit the space available, Joseph Joseph specialises in clever functional products and storage solutions for around the home.
Even today, the pair say they’re still design-makers at heart and are never happier than when they’re creating something new. “It’s a challenge to continually innovate but we both really love the product side,” says Richard. “You know you’ve got the concept right when it’s so simple that people say they don’t know why someone hasn’t thought of it before.”
Most concepts stem from a problem the duo think needs to be solved. The latest release, for example, tackles the awkward issue of saucepan storage, and the chaotic cupboards it creates. Joseph Joseph’s stylish new range of cookware, Space, has folding handles, making for neater and easier storage, and taking up way less space than standard pans. Even the handles on the lids fold down. And, in keeping with Joseph Joseph’s reputation for colour, the saucepans come in an attractive midnight blue.
It has taken four years of testing and iterative development to get to this point – the longest Joseph Joseph has ever spent on a concept – not least because of the 20-year guarantee. “The handle mechanism has to last, so we tested it for the equivalent of 20 years of use,” says creative director Antony. “We knew that with saucepans, the pain point for consumers was storage, so that’s what we wanted to solve without compromising on the usability. It still feels like the high quality pan it is, and the folding handle is really robust and strong.”
Much of the product testing happens in the London office, at a workshop situated in a glass cube in the middle of the design floor. Not everything makes it through. “We’ve released 1,000 products but we’ve probably looked at over 100,000 concepts to get to that number,” says Antony.
The product that started it all back in 2003 was a glass chopping board. Their grandfather had set up a glass manufacturing business in Birmingham in 1936, producing toughened glass for products such as cooker hobs and fridge shelves. Richard and Antony remember spending part of their summers shovelling glass on the factory floor. After they both studied product design at university, their father, now in charge of the business, asked if they’d like to work on a chopping board.
Initially it was a side project alongside their day jobs – Richard was working at Dyson and Antony was freelancing – but it eventually became a business in its own right. From the start, both brothers pitched in with everything. There was lots of cold calling, exhibiting at trade shows, and even sleeping in the car overnight to save on hotel bills. That sense of being in it together continues to the present day, with both brothers involved in all areas of the business and jointly making the big decisions on new ideas and continuing the company’s growth. “We do all the concept reviews together, as we look at what we should take forward,” says Antony.
So what’s it like running a business with a sibling? “People think it must be a nightmare,” says Richard. “Because lots of people think about their siblings and go: ‘I could never work with my brother.’” But, says Antony, they actually get on very well and have a clear shared vision that makes joint decisions easy.
The business has been internationally focused from almost day one. When the twins found that established retailers close to home weren’t interested in stocking their chopping boards, they piled the car full of stock and drove around Europe for three weeks. Today, almost half of the company’s revenue comes from international markets. They’re lucky that, from a design point of view, their products can cross most borders, says Richard. He admits, though, that heading into a meeting in Japan with a cheese grater and a potato masher was something of a misstep. The buyer had to point out that Japanese people don’t eat much cheese or mash their potatoes. It was a reminder of the importance of market research.
Despite 20 years at the helm, they’re nowhere near to running out of ideas. They have plans to push further into the US and Asian markets, and expand into more categories within the home. Persistence has been crucial, says Richard. “But if you believe you’ve got a great product, you can ride out a lot of the tough times. We’re still here, 20 years later, working together, which feels like a big achievement. We’re still very committed to the business and excited about what comes next.”
Take a look at Space, Joseph Joseph’s first cookware range – designed to bring style, function and order to your kitchen
