EVERY now and then, someone preoccupied with a personal enthusiasm manages to turn this into a successful business. Belfast-born Nicky Kinnaird is a member of that fortunate band.
Her Space NK shops in London are doing so well that she plans to add two more to their number next September and is now "actively looking at regional sites".
Only someone who has shunned London for the past four years could have missed the Space NK phenomenon. A chain of retail outlets specialising in little-known skin-care, cosmetic and perfume lines, it very quickly developed a clientele willing to trust Nicky Kinnaird's judgment. What makes her rapid progress particularly impressive is that this has been based as much on intuition as expertise.
Now aged 33, Kinnaird had been expected to follow her father into the family chartered surveyor business in Northern Ireland, Alexander Kinnaird & Sons. After school, she left Belfast to study land management at Reading University and then worked as a chartered surveyor for eight years in London.
"It was always in the retail industry and high-fashion end of the business," she says. "And after a while, I realised I was more interested in what my clients were doing than in my own work." So she moved onto a firm of retail consultants, which was "fascinating" except that "I would write the reports of what a client needed to do and then not be around for the actual implementation of my recommendations".
Then in 1993, Kinnaird was given the opportunity to translate her accumulated wisdom into reality. "The backers of one of the companies I'd done work for were looking for an anchor tenant in a development in Covent Garden. They said if I could come up with an interesting concept, then they'd back me." That concept turned out to be Space NK, although in its first incarnation there were some differences to the shop's current form. The original Space NK carried a limited range of clothing and accessories and included a cafe, in addition to some cosmetics lines never before available in London.
Gradually, the last of these came to predominate and, after opening another three branches of the shop, Kinnaird now calls her outlets apothecaries. "I can't be a jack of all trades," she says by way of explanation for dropping the clothes, rhetorically adding "why get into the seasonality of clothes?"
Kinnaird's arrival in retail coincided with the emergence of a large number of new cosmetics companies. Many of these have been started by make- up artists and because of their relatively small size were unlikely to be taken up by department stores or major pharmacy chains. Instead, they have found their ideal match in Space NK.
MANY of Kinnaird's brands come from the US and, until her initiative, could only be brought back by transatlantic travellers. Now brands such as Kiehls, Philosophy and Francois Nars make-up have a much wider following. A self-confessed shopping addict, she continues to discover names all the time, personally testing almost every product before introducing it into her shops.
"It's not a chore," she insists. "I get a real kick out of finding new things, working out what has merit and what doesn't. But for us, there has to be a real point of difference; I'm not interested in something just because it's new.
Among the more recent arrivals at Space NK are: Prastara, a citrus-based cologne originating in Poland which can be traced back to the 17th century when it was used by Louis XIV of France, and Wu, a range of Chinese beauty products. Other special delights include Route du The, the signature fragrance of New York department store Barney's, the Italian Valobra soaps, Jurlique skincare, Poppy King's lipsticks from Australia, fragrances such as those by Etro of Milan and Antonia's Flowers from the Hamptons and Stila cosmetics.
According to Kinnaird: "I want to offer my customers the best from each relevant area. A line is in our stores for a certain reason, not just because it is unusual." But unusual or unique items have helped make Space NK so popular that Kinnaird has had to introduce a mail-order service; the shop now receives requests from right across Europe and even the United States. Later this year, she will be producing her first mail-order catalogue.
Despite having to manage the burgeoning chain and travelling regularly to look at new lines, she likes to work behind the counters in her own shops at least two days every week. This gives her direct access to customers and their feedback, plus an understanding of what products are most popular. Many fans of the chain particularly like the opportunities Space NK offers to try out new lines. Staff are trained on a rotational basis by all suppliers, so that they are familiar with every item for sale and not just with one specific brand. "It's more important that a customer goes away with the precise product she's after than making a sale no matter what."
Space NK can be found at 45/47 Brook Street, Mayfair, London W1, Unit 4, Thomas Neals, Earlham Street, Covent Garden, London WC2; 7 Bishopsgate Arcade, 135 Bishopsgate, Broadgate. London EC2; 307 King's Road, Chelsea, London SW3. A mail order service is available, tel 0044-171-6362523.