MD of Ripples Paul Crow stated his career at a bakery, which makes Mr Kipling Cakes, to lead the UK’s only bathroom franchise. Following his induction into the KBB Retail Hall of Fame, we took the opportunity to explore his journey

Paul Crow never intended to make a career in bathrooms. His professional journey began in IT at Manor Bakeries, which makes Mr Kipling Cakes, before taking a turn into the insurance world.

It wasn’t until he met his wife Nicola, daughter of Ripples founders Roger and Sandra Kyme, that brought him into the orbit of bathrooms.

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Having relocated to Bath – the site of Ripples’ first showroom – Paul found himself drawn in.

“I knew what Nicola’s Dad did but I had no real interest in it. I really loved my job at Endsleigh Insurance. But the more I progressed my career, the further away I got from what I enjoyed.”

At the time Ripples was beginning its franchise journey, expanding beyond its Bath showroom with a second studio in Bristol.

Founder Roger Kyme encouraged him to join the business.  Paul recalls: “I asked him ‘where do you think this is going?’ and he replied ‘lets find out where we can take it – it will be a laugh too.” That answer stuck with me.”

Natural fit

Now, 25 years later, Paul leads a network of 22 Ripples showroom across the UK.

Reflecting on his early days, he’s candid: “I was initially just an extra pair of hands to run the Bath showroom, free up Roger’s time to grow the franchise.

“But the reality was I didn’t love that job at all, but it was essential to my development.

“I was more capable in a business background. So I focused on what I knew – IT.”

The shift was transformational. Paul streamlined operations, digitalised ordering and invoices and unified email communication across the network.

“Back in 2000 we were ahead of our time.”

Recognising the power of collaboration and purchase growth, he then formed a ‘Buying Committee’ of franchisees.

Aligning suppliers to meet their customers’ needs has always been at the heart of the business.

Suppliers which offer training and help retailers grow their business are integral to Ripples.

“We invest with suppliers that help us grow. I personally consider that more valuable than a percentage off the purchase price”, exclaims Paul, “It’s about partnership.”

He also helped shape the franchise model to be more scalable and replicable.

“Nicola and I took what Roger and Sandra built and figured out how to help translate that more into a system that others could adopt more easily It’s been an unexpected career but a really fulfilling one.”

Collaborative culture

Paul has helped cultivate a business culture where growth is rooted in a shared vision. Each year, Ripples hosts a franchisee conference to reflect on progress and set goals.

He says: “It gives us momentum and reminds us how far we’ve come.” Ripples has recently rejoined the British Franchise Association to further professionalise its operations.

But how easy is it to evolve a business, which oversees 22 showrooms? Paul says evolving the business has become easier as more franchisees bring fresh perspectives.

 “Every time we open a showroom, we apply fresh ideas. For example, one franchisee trialled a different business software for us – TruBlue – and we then embraced it across the group.”

Ripples has embraced the spirit of adaptability as Paul admits: “Maybe 15 years ago we tried to be  overly formulaic.

“Our franchisees all have unique strengths, and we’re learning to celebrate that, without turning our back on our true values as people and a business.

Customer at core

A retail seminar many years ago also offered Paul a breakthrough insight into customer service.

It featured a market holder selling fruit and vegetable, alongside CEO of Tesco Terry Leahy who both offered the same advice – give the customer what they want.

“It was a light bulb moment and it resonated with me. I realised immediately that we must always reverse engineer the experience based on the consumer and adapt as their needs change.”

That philosophy led Ripples to double down on the already lifestyle-oriented brand that was promoting design expertise over hard selling: “Consumers may not know what they want, or how to bring colours and textures together, for example. That’s where the designer comes in”, he exclaims, explaining they’re not salespeople, they’re trusted advisors.

To build that level of trust, Ripples puts faces to names. Designers’ photos appear on emails and the website “we want people to know who they are meeting and how they can help them”, with customer testimonials always only a click away.

Today,  Ripples is using that customer feedback to further promote its business, with more video case studies of consumers talking about their projects: “We have filmed another case study this week, with a customer sat on the bath in her new bathroom, talking authentically about why she chose Ripples, outlining what she wanted, how the designers helped her and what she loves about the project.

“With that, our marketing team will do a great job of pushing that out across our various  channels.”

The big reset

Ripples sales are ahead of last year, but it hasn’t been a linear road to success.

Paul says 2008 was challenging as showrooms saw suppliers take franchisee credit away. “We were seen as a good example of a premium retailer, so we got more attention when things got tough. But I don’t think we suffered any more than the industry did in terms of closures.

“At the same time, we had franchisees growing turnover and profits but that wasn’t newsworthy.”

However, Paul believes it was a blessing in disguise: “It forced us to reset. We worked really hard on profitability with our franchisees and looked at why some showrooms outperformed others and shared the results.

“We also ramped up our product strategy to include what were at the time mainly installation products such as underfloor heating and grout. We found the margin improved significantly because we were not selling at trade prices.”

Having been on a growth trajectory, Paul says Ripples is not chasing more showrooms, although interest remains high with four enquiries in the past 10 days.

Instead, he is focused on growing strong, deepening franchisee capabilities across finance, product training and sales.

“We want to take the energy and creativity and skills of newer franchisees to blend with our existing group-wide experience and look at all areas where we can make improvements. We also want to do more of the huge number of things our group does so well too.”

He’s also committed to giving back. In 2012, Ripples began its partnership with charity The Cycle, fundraising to help it build eco-toilets in India and teach menstrual education in communities in need.

So what defines success for Paul? He recalls a conversation with owner of Davroc, Giuseppe Corbisiero: “I asked  ‘what do you want from me ?’ and he said ‘I want you to be happy’.

I laughed, but he was serious. That’s his measure of success and honestly I think it’s mine too and on a daily basis I can say I am.”

The KBB Retail Hall of Fame inductees in 2025 include founder of Roundhouse Craig Mason, founder of Ledbury Studio Charlie Smallbone and MD of Anglia Interiors Arron Bird.