MEET THE CLIENT: RICHARD SURMAN, CREW CLOTHING, TALKS RETAIL IT & TECH TRANSFORMATION

In this edition of our Meet the Client series, we sat down with Richard Surman, IT Director at Crew Clothing Company (Crew), to talk career highlights, tech transformation, and what it takes to succeed in retail IT.

With many years in IT, and a CV that includes some of the UK’s best-known fashion brands, Richard brings both breadth and depth to the table - alongside a refreshingly honest view on what works, what doesn’t, and why slowing down (even if it’s just your golf swing) might be the best advice of all!

Hello Richard! It's great to catch up with you. Let's start by telling us a bit about your background.

I’ve worked in IT for over twenty-five years; the past fifteen of which have been in fashion retail for brands including Whistles, Reiss, Oasis and Warehouse. My breadth of experience is broad having started working in IT infrastructure, before moving into software applications, and then management.

Crew Clothing is my first role in the top job; leading the entire IT function including the strategic direction. Previously, I was often in a number two role, facilitating someone else’s strategy.  So, it’s been both exciting and rewarding to bring my vision to life.

What’s been the highlight of your career to date?

Without question, it’s being trusted to define and deliver the IT strategy here at Crew. It’s incredibly rewarding to be given that level of faith from the business, the capabilities and resources to deliver, and to see the impact of the work and value created.

Who, or what, has influenced your career?

David Mold, my former IT Director at Oasis Warehouse, has been a huge influence.  We also worked together at Whistles, and he’s been my mentor for years.  His insight, vision and support has really helped me to grow into a well-rounded IT leader.

Why fashion?  What keeps you in this vertical?

I didn’t deliberately choose fashion; it’s just how things evolved.  Once you’re in a sector, I think it tends to stick because of your experience and networks - your reputation precedes you, so people recommend you for similar roles which is a great compliment.

In your experience, is there much difference between fashion retail and other verticals?

IT enables the business to enhance customer experiences, optimise operational processes, improve inventory management and facilitate data-driven decision-making.  So, whilst there are slight nuances across verticals – for example at Oddbins, we were dealing with perishables and sell-by dates, and deliverables may be different, the fundamentals of IT are largely the same.  It’s why IT skills are easily transferrable across different verticals and sectors.

What attracted you to Crew?

Several things.  It’s a well-known heritage brand with strong British roots.  It was on a growth path with a genuine appetite to become a bigger brand within the UK.  The opportunity to lead IT, define the vision and build something that would help the business scale, was all a huge draw.

How would you describe Crew in three words?

Heritage.  Fashionable.  Forward-thinking.

For those unfamiliar with the brand, tell us a bit more about Crew?

Crew started over 30 years ago with an idea to create timeless clothes inspired by the British coast. With its cobbled streets, crystal clear water and unbeatable views, Salcombe was the perfect inspiration for professional skier, Alastair Parker-Swift’s first menswear collection. When he wasn’t competing for England, Alastair ran a successful windsurfing school. It was here that Crew Clothing was born.

In 2017, the business was sold to our current owner and since then, we’ve been on an expansion path increasing both our store estate and third-party sales channels.  Today we have over 100 stores, from St Ives to St Andrews, and continue to open new stores.

Interestingly we’re not your usual fashion retailer.  We’re more of a coastal market town retailer and our stores are typically smaller than most retailers, which works well for us.  And unlike many apparel retailers who lean heavily into either womenswear or menswear, or online vs retail, our business is well-balanced with roughly a fifty / fifty split across all of these.  This balance gives us real resilience, as shown in our trading performance.

Crew Clothing has several sister brands.  Tell us a bit about the IT operating model across the group?

While Saltrock was acquired around the same time as Crew, the businesses continued to operate separately.  With Ben Sherman and Pringle of Scotland joining the group in 2023, it made more sense, strategically and operationally, to bring all brands onto the same IT environment and unify systems and platforms.  I recommended this given the opportunity to increase efficiencies, reduce costs, and enable the smaller brands to successfully scale up, like Crew has done.  We’re now aligning our IT operating model and rolling out common systems across our sister brands.

What was your original IT vision for Crew?

When I joined Crew in 2020, it was clear we needed to do something with our ageing infrastructure and old software applications to help the business grow.  

Our legacy ERP was the predominant issue, and I was very mindful the business had been burnt with a previous ERP upgrade.  Instead of going with a full-on ERP replacement, I decided a modular approach would be better for the business. 

By splitting our retail operating systems into smaller, modular components – integrated to our old environment but equally capable of standing alone, we could roll out faster, offer more flexibility and better functionality, and increase agility.  And by embracing cloud-based systems, we would remove our over reliance on one or two systems (including a data centre), reducing the risk of single points of failure.

And how’s the IT transformation programme progressing?

We’re about 85% of the way there.  Originally, I hoped we’d complete in three years - it’s going to be closer to four.  One of the biggest challenges has been cross-functional input.  It’s no surprise given the size and breadth of our transformation programme.  People have their day job; there are higher priorities and resources can be stretched.

In hindsight, would I have done anything differently?  Maybe I could have pushed harder for dedicated business resource but we’re in retail and budgets are limited.

What’s Datitude role in Crew’s transformation programme?

We’re using Datitude’s platform as the middleware to connect all our systems and the engine to power business reporting.

We’d implemented Workday as our new finance system and the integration demands were quite significant.  To keep the project on track we’d developed several integrations in-house to feed our legacy ERP system into Workday.  It works perfectly fine but requires an in-house developer to maintain it.  In addition, it relies on feeding data from our legacy ERP which we won’t be doing long term. 

I needed a solution that could replace all of that and support our move away from the ERP.  So, I was looking for a provider that knew retail and whose middleware platform could pull in data from multiple systems, unify it and serve it into Workday.  We also needed a new reporting engine given our existing BI and reporting tool is fundamentally built to sit on our legacy ERP. 

With all our data coming through Datitude’s platform, it made sense to have a reporting layer that sits on top.   So, with Datitude’s platform, we’ve got an integration, data and BI / reporting layer, from a single source of truth.  Having worked with Datitude at Oasis Warehouse, I knew they could be trusted to deliver.  

What advice would you give to other retail tech leaders embarking on a digital transformation project?

Don’t just default to the big players.  It’s easy because they feel safe and reliable, but some of the most innovative, effective solutions come from smaller providers.  Think outside the box, be open-minded, see what other solutions are out there and choose what’s right for your business – not just what fits the status quo.

Also, recognise that not every decision will be right forever.  The key is to learn from experience and be quick to adapt as your needs change.

What’s been your most challenging transformation project?

Taking a combined infrastructure across Oasis, Warehouse, Coast and Karen Millen and untangling it into separate environments and data sets - so each brand could operate independently and be sold, was a real challenge.   

Whilst the new infrastructure build was relatively straightforward, the data migration project was a much larger beast!  We had to take a big bang approach - with each brand going live on a set day, so it had to be right.  It involved lots of engagement across the business and endless testing to ensure the right data was in the right place and everything worked properly.

What retail tech innovations excite you most?

AI is an obvious one.  It has massive potential, although we haven’t had the bandwidth to explore it as much as I would have liked as we’re in the middle of a major transformation programme.  I’m excited by the possibilities, equally cautious.  There seem to be so many tools available, offering similar capabilities. 

Like all technology, it’s important to choose wisely and not chase the next big thing just for the sake of it.  Otherwise, you risk spending a fortune for no value. 

What’s the secret to your success?

Listening and understanding what the business (different departments) needs.  Staying flexible and being adaptable, because priorities shift.  And being collaborative.  I meet regularly with the leadership team to stay in tune with their challenges and make sure I’m communicating the IT strategy and deliverables effectively with the business too.  

Also, not being an IT leader that says “no” all the time.   IT is an enabler of business change, and I try to be realistic, but also open-minded about what’s possible given the resources, budget and value being added.

The Last Word…..what was the last:

Industry event you attended? Retail Technology Show.  

Mobile app you used? WhatsApp (this morning).

Last AI prompt you used? Review these CVs (against a job description) and tell me which applications I should shortlist for interview and why.

Last great piece of advice you received? “Just slow it down” - from a mate on the golf course.  Useful advice which applies to more than just my swing!

Last thing most people would know about you? I grew up on a farm. 

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From a farm in the countryside to the bright lights, big city of London and driving digital transformation at Crew Clothing Company, Richard’s journey is one of adaptability. growth, and a clear strategic vision.

Our heartfelt thanks to Richard for supporting this feature.  We’re enjoying partnering with him (again!), and the wider Crew team on their transformation journey.   We’re looking forward to what’s next as the roadmap unfolds across Crew’s sister brands – Ben Sherman, Pringle of Scotland and Saltrock, and wish Richard continued success.  

For more on Crew Clothing, head over to www.crewclothing.co.uk.

Discover more about Datitude's work with Crew in this article.

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