Profile: Alastair Bailey

THE early 80s were important years for the Manchester music scene.

Alastair Bailey, a 16-year-old school leaver with a YTS job at Castle Records in Bury, had a stage side view.

His boss was a friend of Tony Wilson, the late great impresario, journalist and businessman who would often visit the shop.

“We were there at the start of the Hacienda and Factory. Very exciting times,” he says, referring to the legendary nightclub and record label, both now defunct.

The cultural movement was a driving force behind the regeneration of the North West, an area that had been deteriorating since the late 60s.

Bailey was inspired by Wilson’s maverick approach to business. “It was not all commercial, it did something good as well,” he says of the man who nurtured bands like Joy Division, New Order and Happy Mondays and led the way in the post-industrial rebirth of the city, but never used formal business contracts.

“It was never just about the money,” says Bailey. “It was cooler than that.”

After a couple of years at the record shop, helping to decide which records to buy from travelling salesmen, Bailey entered the motor trade. He worked at a Honda garage in Clitheroe as a junior salesman before moving to Alfa Romeo in Formby.

“It’s always been one of my favourite marques. It has a very Italian philosophy of doing things.

“It’s the only manufacturer that makes cars that it thinks you should have. Everyone else makes cars knowing what you want.”

Next came a job selling Mercedes-Benz cars in Manchester. An opportunity arose in the Middle East with the German automotive giant and Bailey took it.

He moved to Dubai in the mid-90s, a time when the city started to take off as a major international player and hub for global trade and tourism.

“Growing up in Manchester it was an eye opener for me to see that bigger, wider, more glamorous business world. I met some really strong characters.”

Bailey returned to the UK in 1997 and worked for Mercedes-Benz in London as a sales manager.

But the lure of the capital lasted for only so long and a split with a girlfriend persuaded him to head home to the North and be closer to ageing parents.

Back home, a mutual friend introduced him to businessmen Stephen Battye and Christopher Bullus, who had plans to create a retail store at an old textiles mill in Batley. They invited Bailey to join them as retail director in 1999.

They wanted to take a design-led approach to the regeneration of the building, he recalls.

“It was a done in a very different way to any other textile mill. It was a bit like making Lawrence of Arabia. They wanted to make the best film ever made. They found out it was also the most expensive.”

The new name for the mill came from Jonathan Silver, the Salts Mill developer and a friend of Battye’s, who suggested the name Redbrick, says Bailey.

Their plan for its use was very different too, he adds.

“Nobody had ever put a department store for furniture together before. We wanted to give people that concept.”

The directors had some good contacts at Habitat, the household furnishings retailer which had brought design-led furniture to the masses, and secured their first tenant.

And so Redbrick Mill was born. Looking back, Bailey says the early years were “exciting and scary” as the project did not fit any traditional business plan.

Cumberland Building Society provided the original mortgage on the building and has remained a strong backer of the business throughout the recession, adds Bailey, who became managing director in 2005.

Today, the 140,000 sq ft building is home to around 40 concessions of varying sizes featuring many leading international names in lifestyle design.

They include Heal’s, BoConcept, Calligaris, Multiyork, Feather & Black, Lombok and Conran.

Redbrick offers rental or commission-based licenses, calculated as a percentage of turnover. Tenants get “a fully operational retail umbrella” covering rent, rates, all amenities and marketing, says Bailey.

The business is profitable and sales are up against last year, says Bailey. “We are pleased with that,” he adds.

It provides employment for around 200 people, including sales, maintenance, back office and part-time staff.

Redbrick launched the Potting Shed spa last year “to give us a point of difference”, says Bailey. The spa promises to “soothe, nourish and rejuvenate” and has proved very successful, he adds.

Redbrick has just opened the North’s largest Calligaris store to showcase the work of the Italian furniture maker.

Heal’s, the mill’s anchor tenant, has taken an additional 2,000 sq ft for its new bed store.

Bailey is in talks with fashion designer Wayne Hemingway about showcasing his design works in Redbrick and is hopeful it will be open by Christmas.

He is also speaking to an online-only furniture manufacturer about exhibiting its products at the mill.

“We are not an identikit retail park store,” says Bailey. “We are different.

“A lot of work goes into creating what you see is seamless. We put the Ideal Home Show into one store.”

The business is working hard at developing a multi-channel approach to sales. Some retailers see the internet as a threat, says Bailey, who maintains that it can be used as an advantage.

The customer base is ABC1, the demographic covering the upper middle, middle and lower middle class; agewise it covers “the 75-year-old who listens to The Who, the 25-year-old in his first property and the retired accountant who wants the more traditional Multiyork stock”, he says.

“It’s about quality,” he says. “We have turned down companies which didn’t fit the format.”

Bailey argues that the public is more interested in designer furniture and interior design than ever before, largely due to the glut of home improvement TV shows over the last decade.

He credits Terence Conran’s Habitat for changing the way the UK looks at furniture and helping consumers to understand design rather than just function.

Bailey, Battye and Bullus succeeded in finding a new use for a textiles mill in the post-industrial age.

Battye and Bullus have both passed away, but their contribution to the regeneration of Batley lives on.

Bailey’s experience is in some demand. Local authorities including Walsall and Rotherham have sought his views on regeneration.

“We have done something special and created something that really should not exist,” he says.

“It’s made a big impact on a lot of people’s lives.”

Alastair Bailey in profile

Name: Alastair Charles Bailey

Date of birth: August 1967

First job: Youth Training Scheme

Car driven: Mercedes E- Class

Last book: Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

Best film: The English Patient

Favourite song: Hallelejah by Jeff Buckley

Holiday: Majorca, near Valldemossa

Shopping: Daunt Books in Marylebone and Rhodes Wood in Harrogate

Most proud of: Redbrick and the difference it’s made to so many people.