Williams-Sonoma's longtime chairman and CEO Howard Lester, who saw an opportunity in home cooking aficionados before many others, passed away last week at the age of 75.
In his first career, Mr. Lester founded and sold two software businesses to become rich enough to retire at a young age and focus on his golf hobby. In 1978, at the age of 41, he grew restless and acquired Williams-Sonoma, which at the time had four stores in San Francisco and Beverly Hills with annual sales of $4 million. Today, the company has 609 stores, seven direct-mail catalogs and annual sales of $3.4 billion. Pottery Barn, acquired from Gap Inc. in 1986, is now its largest division. It also operates Williams-Sonoma Home, Pottery Barn Kids, PBteen and West Elm.
At the time of the purchase, the four stores, specializing in items for gourmet kitchens, were popular with local chefs and home-cooking enthusiasts, but failing. Founder Chuck Williams stayed on as the company's merchant but Mr. Lester's business smarts quickly turned the business around. By 1983, an initial public offering was completed.
"Howard was a shopkeeper at heart," said Mr. Williams in a statement from Williams-Sonoma.
After taking charge, Mr. Lester initially focused on the catalog business but soon began expanding Williams-Sonoma's stores, which were designed to resemble a French cottage. The business particularly capitalized on a boom in cooking as a hobby.
"Chuck, when he started it, did it out of love," Mr. Lester told the San Francisco Chronicle in a 2004 interview, according to an obituary in the Los Angeles Times. "He loved to cook. Williams has a magnificent eye and curiosity. He has incredible taste and created this wonderful little store. ... After about a year, I think I started to see that there was much more here. There was a craze of cooking. We started to see that we could build a national brand for the upscale customer."
According to an obituary in The New York Times, Mr. Lester's "grand vision" developed in the eighties was to position Williams-Sonoma as an "aspirational store" for baby boomers "eager for a more luxurious, creative way of life."
Tapping the software expertise of his former career, Mr. Lester also developed a sophisticated database of 4.5 million customers.
"With a few keystrokes," Forbes reported in 1991, "the company can tell you what you've bought from each of its five catalogs (an estimated 60 percent of customers have bought from more than one), what time of the year you tend to buy, what category of merchandise you lean toward, and so on and so forth."
But Mr. Lester still believed product was critical. Asked in the 2004 Chronicle interview whether Williams-Sonoma would ever run out of ideas for new cookware items, he said, "People replace old things, and it's amazing how you can sell food processors and KitchenAids in a dozen different colors and toasters in different colors. I have great faith in the American consumer to continue to buy."
Discussion Questions: What's been the key to Williams-Sonoma's success? How has the company managed to capitalize on the home cooking boom seemingly so much better than other retailers?
- W. Howard Lester, Chairman Emeritus of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. Dies at Age 75 - Williams-Sonoma
- W. Howard Lester, Williams-Sonoma Owner, Dies at 75 - The New York Times
- His Wares Brought Luxury to the Kitchen - The Wall Street Journal
- W. Howard Lester dies at 75; former chairman of Williams-Sonoma - Los Angeles Times