From side hustle to multimillion pound business: How one woman turned her love for handbag

The Repair Shop: Derek emotional over repaired handbag

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Mrs Staerck found the restoration industry through her husband Ben Staerck who took over from his father as managing director of Furniture Clinic. In 2013, Mrs Staerck spear-headed an offshoot of her husbands’ business, Handbag Clinic, which has since handled over £40 million worth of handbags and garnered affiliations with the likes of Jimmy Choo along with a line-up of celebrity clientele.

Mrs Staerck commented: “I’ve been obsessed with handbags forever. I’m not sure why, I grew up in a tiny village outside of Newcastle, and my mum wasn’t interested at all.

“I remember, when I got a Saturday job, I’d stare at them through the windows — and, as soon I could, I bought my first brand-named bag; a cream Luella tote at 18 years old, which I thought was the best thing ever.

“However, it soon got covered in dye transfer, from my jeans. And, a colleague told me there was a local company, The Furniture Clinic, that did repairs.

“She gave me their number, but I lost the piece of paper. If I had gone, it turns out I’d have met my future husband, Ben, two years earlier than I did — at a bar in Newcastle.

“Ben had built up a business with his father cleaning and restoring furniture and leather household items since 2004 and, by the time I met him, it had grown from a small online family operation to a thriving global business with a team of 75 people and a network of distributors around the world, still operated from its North East headquarters.”

Mr Staerck was inspired to create an independent offshoot of Furniture Clinic specifically for handbags as an increasing number of them were being sent to Furniture Clinic.

“We were having dinner one night, and I suggested integrating buying and selling preowned luxury handbags as a resale operation in our stores.

“No one else was doing it on a large scale, at the time. Nor were they combining restoration with resale which enables customers to fetch the highest possible price for their bags. There was a clear gap in the market,” she added.

“So I decided to leave my career and board Handbag Clinic as a buyer to develop the preowned resale operation.

“I took charge of the day-to-day operations, developing a new system from scratch, working out which brands were popular, sourcing and photographing products. It really spiralled from there.”

The very first Handbag Clinic store opened in 2015 and was quickly turned into a chain of stores across the UK as well as a growing online presence.

Under Mrs Staerck’s leadership, the Handbag Clinic went on to form partnerships with the likes of Harrods and Harvey Nichols, with a monthly average of 700 handbags being restored each month.

Being a part of Furniture Clinic before becoming independent gave Handbag Clinic the title of longest standing luxe restoration service in the UK.

The Handbag Clinic boasts a rooster of celebrity clientele from Poppy Delevingne and Storm Keating to Sophie Herman.

Recent years saw a boom in buying preowned goods which was only accelerated in the pandemic.

Whilst many businesses began scaling back in both income and output during the pandemic, Handbag Clinic thrived, seeing twice as much growth in the first lockdown than previous years and a £1million turnover in 2020.

“Whilst high streets are collapsing and sales of non-essential items have plummeted during the pandemic, resale and auction sites selling luxury and vintage handbags, particularly Hermes and Chanel and Louis Vuitton, are thriving because they are considered a safer investment than stocks and shares.

“Because of their often-appreciating value, luxury handbags are one of the most sought-after items to buy and sell on the preowned market. They are seen as collector’s items and, in the face of economic uncertainty, a sound investment that can be passed down through generations.”

In the last 12 months, the preowned luxury handbag market has risen by 13 percent, outperforming all other collectables such as art and fine wine.

Handbag Clinic restores, resells and authenticates brand name handbags, allowing customers to bring new life into their favourite accessories or get some spare cash for the pre-loved pieces.

Mrs Staerck ended: “I always say, one woman’s trash is another woman’s treasure. You wouldn’t believe what people have in their wardrobes that they thought was worthless. So many people throw away bags! I don’t dare tell them how much they could have saved.”
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