Carl Morenikeji, managing director of Scaramanga, started his vintage furniture and interiors and leather bags business in 2006, after travelling around the world.

He highlights the fact that its retail website and store in the Fife town of Cupar sells to consumers all over the world as well as to bars, restaurants, boutique hotels, and independent stores, plus to props buyers for film and television projects.

Scaramanga is frequently in the headlines, having now supplied 16 global entertainment franchise productions, including the Marvel films.

Name:

Carl Morenikeji

What is your business called?

Scaramanga

 

Where is it based?

Cupar, Fife.

 

What does it produce/do?

We source and sell vintage furniture and interiors as well as designing and making leather bags.

We’re proud to have been sustainable and ethical from the start. We salvage furniture that might otherwise end up in landfill or be burnt and sympathetically restore it, so it keeps its character and charm. Our bags are ethically made by adults in small family firms in India (whose practices are monitored by Ethical Junction) and are made from a semi-vegetable-tanned leather which uses less water and fewer harmful chemicals than the traditional process.

 

To whom does it sell?

Our retail website and store in Cupar sells to consumers all over the world as well as to bars, restaurants, boutique hotels, and independent stores, plus to props buyers for film and television projects. We’ve now supplied 16 global entertainment franchise productions - from the Marvel films to Strictly [Come Dancing], including eight from the top 12 biggest-grossing movie franchises, among more than 60 film and TV productions over 12 years.

 

What is its turnover?

Varies between £300,000 and £500,000.

 

How many employees?

Six

 

Tell us a bit about the history of the business?

I started Scaramanga in 2006 after travelling around the world several years earlier. I discovered a brown leather satchel in a dusty bazaar in India as well as other small handmade home accessories and thought there could be a business in selling classic leather satchels and bags plus original vintage homewares. I wrote a business plan and started the business with £2,000.

 

What were you doing before?

I spent 12 years working for BT Wholesale, marketing their early internet-based services, and as a business consultant creating IT (information technology) solutions for technology companies and government organisations. I spotted the potential to sell things on the internet and was delighted to be involved in getting some of the UK’s biggest retailers into e-commerce.

 

What do you least enjoy?

Delegating. Even after all these years, I sometimes think I can do everything myself. But you can’t do everything on your own. We have a great multi-skilled, passionate and experienced team at Scaramanga, and everyone is very dedicated to making sure our success continues. Friends and family have been a great support over the years, as have our suppliers, with whom we’ve developed great long-term relationships.

 

What do you consider to be the main successes of the business?

We were early pioneers in the resurgence of the humble leather satchel back in 2006 (two years before The Cambridge Satchel Company!). We designed a simple bag made from a vintage-style leather. It was made by skilled leather artisans in India using traditional tools and techniques.

Since then we’ve diversified into furniture and among our many B2B customers we supplied more than 3,000 vintage trunks to SuperDry for their store displays.

We’ve also had a lot of success supplying vintage trunks for use as props to films and TV shows. Recent productions to buy them and other items, often vintage or antique padlocks, include Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, House of the Dragon, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Fast X, and the last James Bond film, No Time To Die.

 

What are your ambitions for the firm?

I’d like to grow the wholesale side of the business further. We’ve been trading with 80% of our suppliers for more than 12 years and have the ability to buy, restore and supply large quantities of furniture. I’d like to launch more ranges based around reclaimed and salvaged materials.

 

What are the challenges facing the sector and market, and what could be done to overcome or address these?

Households have been feeling severe spending pressures from essentials for a few years and generally have less money to spend or are cautious about future spending. A longer period of economic stability would give people more confidence to spend more.

 

What single thing would most help?

A cut to interest rates.

 

What is the most valuable lesson you have learned?

Paying a fair price to our makers and other suppliers - trading ethically has been at the heart of what Scaramanga does from day one, and through that we’ve formed strong, trusted, long-term relationships with our suppliers. As a result, as our business has grown, so has theirs.

 

What was your best moment?

Meeting my wife, Emma, in Alice Springs, Australia in 1999. We were both on tours in the area and bumped into each other again a week later in Adelaide. She’s been a constant support through the ups and downs of running Scaramanga.

My best moment in business was seeing vintage padlocks supplied by us used in the last James Bond film, No Time To Die, as I’ve been a big fan of the Bond novels and films since childhood.

 

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What has been your most challenging moment in life or business?

Not long after starting Scaramanga, a leather bag-maker let us down with a very big order and we lost money. It was a big blow for us and it took us some time to recover. We found another supplier and we’ve now been working with that new supplier for more than 15 years.

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How do you relax?

I enjoy reading and travelling.

 

What phrase or quotation has inspired you the most?

“Buy less, choose well, make it last” - Vivienne Westwood. I feel it represents our ethos of making and buying well-made and durable fashion and homewares which transcend fashions.

 

What is the best book you have ever read? Why is it the best?

Generation X, by Douglas Coupland, published in 1991. It’s a great tale about three Gen-Xers living in the Californian desert in the late-1980s - trying to find their way in life, a way that’s different to the one they were told to be on. Best read by Gen-Xers!

 

Where do you find yourself most at ease?

I love travelling; experiencing different cultures, places and meeting people. East Africa is next on my list of places to visit.

 

If you weren’t in your current role, what job would you most fancy?

I would love to be a photographer. Together with my passions for travelling and exploring, I’d get to see even more of the places less-trodden.

 

What countries have you most enjoyed travelling to, for business or leisure, and why?

This summer I travelled around Morocco with my wife Emma and our two teenage children. We spent two weeks journeying south through the Atlas Mountains and explored kasbahs and abandoned ancient cities. The highlight was a trip into the dunes of the Sahara on camels. We found the way of life in the desert fascinating.