TALKING SHOP: Baker Brothers’ Lizzie McAuley on Bedford’s luxury potential

When listing the shopping capitals of the world, Bedford is unlikely to feature in many people’s top 100. But the town’s premier jeweller, Baker Brothers, has grand designs. Having become a Rolex authorised dealer in 2008, the company moved into new and larger premises in 2024. And now their ambitions are loftier than ever. Watch Insider’s Daniel Malins spoke with Baker Brothers director Lizzie McAuley, who explained her unconventional route to running the family business, what she learnt from her years as a buyer at Tesco, and why she believes that Baker Brothers will become a one stop shop for luxury retail in Bedford.

Watch Insider: What roads led to you being the director of Baker Brothers? Where did it all start?

Lizzie McAuley: It is a family business, but it’s not something I ever wanted to go into, so I went off and started my career as a buyer for Hugo Boss and Tesco. Then my father got sick and I took a sabbatical from Tesco to come and help. While that was going on I really fell in love with the industry and could see so many opportunities in the business that excited me. So eventually I handed in my notice at Tesco and moved over to the family business. I probably hated it for the first 12 months. I found the industry quite old fashioned and close knit, and some of the things I wanted to bring in were probably a bit ahead of their time. But not so much anymore, the industry has now moved on.

WI: Can you give examples of some of the times where you were a bit of a trailblazer in those early years? 

LM: I was very shocked at the lack of processes and systems that were out there and even now, things like the CRM systems and the stock control systems. They’re very lacking in analysis and what you can take out of them. You know, when I was at Tesco and Hugo Boss, I was used to the figures and the analysis you used to get through and everything was at your fingertips. There’s not something that fits our industry at the moment, so I found that irritating. So we created our own system at that point and also e-commerce was in its infancy. The industry felt people would never buy online and I remember people saying it was a bit of a fad and all that sort of stuff. I remember really pushing to get us a website and a marketing team. Everyone thought I was mad when I had three people working for us in marketing, and I remember my sister [co-director, Rebecca Church] saying to me: “What are you going to do with them now? What are they going to do all day?” But we could do with another three right now!

It was a very male orientated environment, particularly at the top. So whenever I used to go to Antwerp and even now when I go and buy loose diamonds, some of the the diamond industry didn’t want to deal with me because I was female, so I had to had to sort of grin and bear that and just find my way to be able to do business out there.

WI: To what extent have those issues been resolved? 

LM: There’s definitely progress being made. I mix with many more females now and I think the diamond industry has realised that if they want the business then they will have to deal with all sorts. So, it has changed, but it went on for many, many years. Some of the diamond cutters wouldn’t even let me into the same office, so I had to sit separately from them. It’s not that long ago. I wasn’t allowed to shake their hands and things like that. So it was just just cultural differences. At the time I was quite young, and when you’re working at Tesco, it was just something that never came up. So I had to find a way to build rapport and relationships, to be able to do the business I wanted and to negotiate.

WI: Having been through that, do you feel it accelerated your personal character development in a way?

LM: Oh yeah, definitely. I mean, I never took it personally or as an insult. I just realised that I’d have to work harder to get the negotiations. It definitely made me build my character and I had to put myself in uncomfortable situations, which at the time I didn’t particularly like, but I think it makes you a stronger person.

WI: It’s interesting what you were saying about the processes and the CRM system and the use of data at Tesco. I can absolutely believe why you took the best of that and try to instil a bit of it into Baker brothers. Is there anything else that you learnt at Tesco that you’ve given to Baker Brothers?

LM: HR wasn’t really thought about back then. There were certain initiatives I brought in to try and keep staff, to try and listen to them. I mean, it was small things with regard to uniforms and holidays and just a bit of culture that I changed because I didn’t like the way the industry works. So yeah, there were certain initiatives I brought in because I wanted the team to stay and I wanted to help develop them in their career paths. When you work in a corporate firm you get on a career path, whereas when you come into our industry at that time, it wasn’t ever thought about. You just fell into things. Whereas I’ve tried to build a road map to try and help people develop and ultimately have a say in what we do as a business.

WI: How difficult is the balance to strike, though? On the one hand, a small company has the flexibility and is able to react to situations and not be overexposed. But it’s harder to achieve what you were just describing at Tesco, where you were giving people these career paths. On the flip side, you don’t want the bad sides of that corporate culture kicking in, where people can slip through the cracks and think they have a job for life.

LM: You physically and financially couldn’t do some of the things that the big corporate companies did.

So I didn’t have the budgets to play with, and it took a while to figure out how to make the budgets move to where I wanted them. What you’ll never get in corporate is the family feel, and we really try to get people to buy into the business. Nowadays it it happens quite naturally, but in those days it just wasn’t.

In the corporate world, I went through many redundancies and there was always the fear that you could be the next one that was knocked out because they will take a level of management out or something like that. So I didn’t ever like the fear factor and I always made sure that we didn’t keep people in the dark. I used to come in and tell them what they’re doing. I remember some of them looking at me going: “Why are you telling me this and why do you want to know what I think?” That took some adapting.

WI: That’s quite a long term play, isn’t it? Because if you come out and do that once, then it seems a bit of a gimmick. But if that’s the new normal and that transparency is consistent then you should get some buy-in.

LM: Yeah. There are pros and cons to the corporate world but I think for me now the pros are definitely in the smaller family businesses. I couldn’t go back to corporate now. You can react so quickly. When we have our team meetings, if we’ve got something that’s not quite working, you can discuss it and you can make that change there and then. It used to take months to get anything changed. When you’re in the corporate world, you’d go round and round in circles.

WI: You were talking about HR departments and the retention of talent, but what about the initial process of recruitment and attracting that talent in the first place? Generally in hospitality and retail the prevailing narrative is that attracting talented staff is as hard as it’s ever been. Would you agree with that? 

LM: Yeah, it’s definitely hard to get the right people and I think sales particularly has a bad rep. But actually talented salespeople are incredible. It really is a skill, knowing how to build rapport and listening to the signals and making sure that you give the right experience and you develop those relationships. It’s a skill that very few people have.

Sometimes when I interview people, they say: “I’ve got these multi million pound sales,” but they haven’t really. You can make a sale once, but if you don’t have the rapport with them, they won’t come back to you. So I always try not to employ people that have been in the industry before I look for a personality. I think you can teach the skills, but if you don’t have the right personality that understands what you’re trying to do in the luxury market, then you’ll never get anywhere with them. 

Trying to attract that is really difficult at the moment. I don’t think people see it as a career, they see it more as a stop gap. When we interview, I try and explain to them that it isn’t a job for today. I talk about the future a lot to try and make them see where they could end up, you know? Do you want to stay in sales and then be a buyer, or do you want to learn to be a watchmaker? Or do you want to be a registered valuer? There are so many aspects of how you can grow in our industry, so I talk very little about the short term and try to get them to think about the long term and what they really want.

WI: It’s always struck me as odd that people would be put off by such a sales job. You’re not selling double glazing to old people, and all the inquiries will be inbound. Ultimately, if I walk into your store and ask about Tudor, I don’t see how there’s any sort of ethical dilemma there from a sales perspective.

LM: I just don’t think people quite see what the skill set is and they get undervalued. I think when you’re good here, it looks easy. My husband hates it when I’m out buying, because if I can see a good salesperson, I’ll buy from them, even if I don’t want it! 

WI: So what are the processes by which you end up with a highly motivated sales team?

LM: It can be demotivating because I think we live in a society where a lot of people don’t want to put the work in at the beginning, but you have to. Anyone that’s been successful, whether that be as football managers or Richard Branson, they’ve all started at the bottom. Yes, there’s a little bit of luck, but you have to put the work in and you have to commit. It’s trying to get some of the younger generation to realise that it’s not a quick fix. I say it to my children all the time. If you want it, you’re going to have to work for it. 

I do think since Covid people are a little bit lacking to put that effort in. If it doesn’t work, they’ll just go and find something else. So they never get the chance to move up those rankings because they don’t give it enough time. It’s why we put all our teams through their qualifications, no matter whether they’ve been in the industry or not.

WI: It’s interesting picking up on that culture of entitlement with younger people, because it seems incongruous to me with the state of the world that they live in. The odds are often so stacked against them now when they’re coming out of university or trying to get on the property ladder, so you’d think that would spur them on.

LM: I feel sorry for them in lots of ways, but they haven’t got the aspiration. When I was starting my career, I always had an aspiration of “Once I get there, I’m going to buy this. Once I get there, I’m going to do this.” They live in a world where so much of it is accessible to them now, so if they want to buy a Rolex, even if they can’t afford to, they’ve got credit cards. They don’t want to wait for it, they want it all now. They don’t feel the sense of achievement that you should get. You know, the first time I bought my Rolex, I remember how I felt about it and what a big deal it was. The first time I bought my my diamond-studded earrings, it was a momentous occasion.

So they they seem to get these before the momentous occasion. So it makes you wonder what are they actually working for?

WI: I guess that’s a bad thing when it comes to recruitment, but a good thing in terms of youngsters walking through your door and buying a Rolex! When did that relationship between you and Rolex begin, and how much of a game-changer was it?

LM: It’s an incredible brand. That brand is like nothing else I’ve ever worked with and I love to be part of it. We started in 2008 and we were the first account they’d opened for something like 20 years. And I remember them laughing because they couldn’t quite remember how to open a new account!

It’s been an incredible journey with them because again, as the industry’s changed, they’ve changed, and the KPIs that they now put in place alter every year in line with what’s going on outside the industry. So they push that little bit more, which is why I like them. They make you stand up straighter.

WI: It’s well documented that there are obligations that come with the Rolex territory, but presumably it’s still very much all worth it?

LM: You know, if you want that brand and the access to the clients, there should be some strong KPIs. There should be some very strong rules about how you do that, so I’ve got no negative things to say about it because it makes you push harder. It makes you keep looking beyond Next year, and we all need that. The access to the people that want to buy Rolex are a different clientele altogether and learning how to keep them happy again is a good challenge. It gives you that access to a world which you wouldn’t normally get. It gives you other opportunities and it’s up to you to make sure you utilise those opportunities in the right manner.

WI: Are you part of the CPO programme with Rolex and, if not, is it in the pipeline?

LM: Yes. We moved to our new premises last year, and we’ve been building our workshop. So we are at the moment building our stock for CPO, which we’re hoping to go live next year. But we need to buy quite a few more Rolexes to be able to do that.

It makes you nervous. It’s the unknown. Which is why Houlden [buying group] is such a good thing to be part of because you’ve got like minded people that have done this and that are willing to share the learnings. So yeah, next year hopefully we will be fully officiated CPO.

WI: Do you get frustrated with the significant shortage of watchmakers? I constantly hear from retailers that it negatively affects after sales service, but what’s the solution?

LM: We’re very lucky that we have Jimmy. He was at Watches of Switzerland for 18 years and Rolex before that. So my journey’s been very positive. But I remember when we were starting to look for a watchmaker, it was a challenge to find the right level and somebody that has business acumen, as well as just being able to put a watch together. 

I think the industry as a whole has been trying to work on this issue, whether it’s the British School of Watchmaking, or the apprenticeships that everyone’s trying to offer. Within the Houlden Group, they send their apprentice watchmakers to the more experienced workshops around the country. So we’re actively trying to help to make sure that there is access to the right watchmakers and there is a new generation coming through.

WI: You are extremely proactive with populating content on your website. Has that always been the case?

LM: Interesting you can say that because we re-launched our website in January and it is still a work in progress. With Google and AdWords and everything, you really need someone that is at the forefront of what’s going on. So we’re working with a number of different agencies to try and make sure that we don’t get left behind.

But I think the website is key. It’s the first point of call for anyone before they decide what they’re going to buy. And the blogs and social media are so important. We’ve been working tirelessly over the last two months to try and work out what 2026 will look like. We’re going to rebrand. We’re working on business-as-usual stuff as well as the seasonal stuff.

WI: That’s very candid. Are the issues with the website cosmetic or functional?

LM: It’s mostly functionality.Ours isn’t quite where we want it at the moment, but the focus is on 2026. Our e-commerce and our digital side will look very different to how it has done this year.

WI: Where do you feel the state of luxury retail is at at the moment? In the coming years, do you see there being  incremental improvements or do you see something around the corner that is going to be a watershed moment?

LM: That’s a big question. I wish there was a watershed moment! I still think there’s a long way to go with luxury retail. My sister and I do a lot of secret shopping. We did Bond Street and went into all the high end jewellers to try and get an idea of what our customers were experiencing in other luxury brands. We also visited a lot of high end cars and things like that as well to try and see what the learnings could be; what we do well and what we don’t do so well. There’s still quite a long way to go to get luxury retailing right, I think.

I’m not sure it’s going to be a watershed, but I think there is an awful lot more opportunity to expose yourself to a broad range of clientele. I think we just need to get slicker about what we’re offering and how we’re offering it. AI is moving at such a pace, it will definitely come into what we do. But ultimately people want people, and the trust that you can’t get from AI or on social media. You do need to buy into that person and that company. So I think luxury retail will stay, but we’re going to have to work pretty hard to stay on the high street.

One of one of my favourite clients was going to his dentist up in Scarborough the other day and I said: “My gosh, that’s a long way to go.” And he said that he has his jeweller, his hairdresser, and his dentist. He says you stick with them if they’re good. 

Most of my clients are male, and I try to make it easy for them. So when they WhatsApp me at 9pm on a Saturday night saying it’s their wife’s birthday the following week, I’ll send them three or four ideas. He’s expecting me to know what it was she had last year because he doesn’t remember. He just wants his options and his prices. He knows he can pick it up from me, he knows I’ll wrap it and if he needs the birthday card as well, it’s there. That’s trust, and it’s about being able to make his life easy. And at the end of the day, that’s what we all want.

WI: That’s an example of you going above and beyond in a way that bigger corporations can’t. Final question: do you have any plans to open up in another town or expand the current store?

LM: Yeah, we do, in a couple of different ways. We own other premises, a couple of which we rent out. My idea is that we get into luxury retail in a slightly different way. We’re looking at maybe doing luxury handbags and things like that so that we can be the one stop place you go to. When he’s in buying his watch, we can send her down the road and she can go and get her shoes or boots and a handbag and things.

So we’re trying to make ourselves the destination town. We stick with our core brands and jewellery and watches, but we try and offer that one stop solution for all our customers so that when they want something, it will be Baker Brothers. 

This article first appeared in the December 2025 edition of Watch Insider.