In bed with CELEBS

Marking its 70th year, Welham Green soft furnishings company Ashley Wilde has grown from a pile-it-high, sell-it-cheap business into an industry leader with A-list partnerships

- Sandra Smith

A shley Brodin was a mere 18 when he found himself heading the family business. The appointment, temporary in duration but with long-lasting repercussions, enabled the youngster to grow in character and cultivate a hunger for an interior design business that grew from humble beginnings in 1950s London to an international reputation from its Hertfordshire base today.

‘After leaving school at 16 I went to work for my father, Nick Brodin, helping to serve customers, loading and unloading vans,’ Ashley recalls. ‘Previously in the army, he was a market man with a good eye for fabrics and a talent for spotting designs. I’d often go with him when he travelled up to the mills in the north of England. He started off with a shop in Berwick Street - the ground floor was retail with a wholesale business in the basement. He went on to open several more outlets.

‘Not long before he was due to go on a trip to the US, the manager had walked out so I asked him who would run the business while he was away. He replied, “You?”. Any mistakes I make, he told me, I won’t make again.’

Having had the opportunity to put into practice the commercial nous he’d absorbed, he made such a success of his brief period in charge that, by the age of 19 he was permanently managing the business. Two years later he was appointed director. Today he’s chief executive of Ashley Wilde Group – a specialist in luxury soft furnishings with an in-house design team and partnerships with leading figures from the worlds of TV, music and design. The award-winning company even won the contract to supply home furnishings merchandise for the 2012 London Olympics.