From school dropout to top of the watch

Local lad, Karl Massey, who having dropped out of school, went on to become a leading Patek Philippe and Rolex watch dealer.

Karl’s family ran a second hand jewellery shop in Alderley Edge when, at the tender age of 13, Karl started working in the shop at weekends.

When he was 15, his school’s deputy headmaster approached his father to let him know that if he took Karl out of school, they would turn a blind eye.

At just 15 years of age, he commenced his career in retail and within three years was opening a second shop for the family in Cheadle.

Hungry for more, and keen to take the business upmarket into the luxury world, an opportunity arose in 1988 when Bramhall jeweller Cottrills went into administration. Karl’s father bought the business from the receiver – for a pound, plus 80p in the pound for the stock.

“My father’s view was that, if it didn’t work, there was only two years to go on the lease and we would just be able to move any unsold stock into our smaller shops,” Karl said.

“I went there and it was like a dream come true. The only brands they had left were Cartier and Seiko; they’d had Rolex, but lost it. I managed to get Omega, and in the first year we sold 100 Omegas. I kept writing to Rolex every few months asking to get the agency back, and eventually after about 12 months, we got it. That is how we got into the higher end.”

In the 1990s, the business had picked up a number of corporate customers who would place orders every month for Omega watches for long-serving employees. “I thought to myself: what an easy business, and so I created a catalogue of corporate gifts. I got myself a secretary and started writing to local companies and by 1992 we had picked up 80% of the business from ICI” (ed – ICI became Astra-Zeneca)

By 1992, the corporate gift business was turning over about £300,000 and the stores around £600,000. A deal with British Rail changed all that. Karl won a contract to supply rewards to the rail company’s entire workforce, and by the following year, 1993, the corporate business was turning over £2.3 million. Ten years later and CottrillsReward, was the UK’s biggest player with around 500 corporate clients.

“It was wonderful. We were turning our stock 20 times a year and we were going out and picking off Garrard, Mappin & Webb and local jewellers all over the country.”

It was the profitability of that business that allowed him to expand his luxury retail operation. He already had Cottrills in Bramhall and opened a second branch in Macclesfield where he had the agency for Rolex and then Patek Philippe.

In 2006 he acquired the Wilmslow store, and was piling the company’s own money into a six month-long fit-out. There were no plans for further expansion before Wilmslow was up and running, but fate intervened again when Preston & Duckworth, one of the biggest regional jewellers headquartered in Preston, went into administration. Karl swooped again and bought its Bolton store for one pound, plus 70p in the pound for the stock.

This turned out to be the high water mark in terms of growing the number of stores in the North West. Wilmslow and Bolton were soon open and trading well, but a major robbery at the Bramhall store — the third time it had been raided — prompted Karl to close that shop. He also took the decision to close the Macclesfield shop as it was so close to Wilmslow and the two stores were fighting for the same customers.

That left Cottrills in Wilmslow and Prestons of Bolton, but Karl decided Prestons name was stronger than Cottrills, so re-branded Wilmslow to Prestons. Prestons of Bolton eventually closed in 2015 after trading continuously for 150 years.

Expanding the empire in Cheshire may have ended, but the two stores in Wilmslow and Bolton had given Karl considerable success with Rolex and Patek Philippe leading to an opportunity in 2012 to open a Rolex boutique in Leeds and a few years later in Guildford, Surrey.

Not bad for a school dropout.