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Thursday, 28th June 2007

From Splash hit to solo

BRANCHING OUT: Fiona Woodward-Kelly
BRANCHING OUT: Fiona Woodward-Kelly
FOURTEEN years ago, Fiona Woodward-Kelly was drafted in to help sort out the show flat for a couple of new developers who were struggling to pullling their first scheme together in Liverpool.
 
She stuck around to do the sales brochure and the prices and has been with the dynamic duo ever since – driving the marketing that has turned a company that wanted to do things differently into the powerful regeneration brand that is Urban Splash.
 
Fiona remembered: “In those days it was just Jonathan Falkingham and Tom Bloxham and a very small team so it was all hands on deck to get things done.

“I fitted out the show flat at Concert Place then we thought ‘Oh we had better have a brochure’, so I did that and helped with the pricing. And there was so much happening that I just stayed and did everything from project management to sales.”
 
As Urban Splash grew, Fiona concentrated more and more on the marketing and, as marketing director, controlled a 12 strong team which has come up with some of the most innovative and distinctive campaigns that have helped sell schemes out before they are even built – and made the company a national household name.
 
And now, just as everything seems sorted and Splash seem to be developing in every town in Britain, Fiona has quit.

Re-evaluation
 
A period off work last year prompted a re-evaluation of her life and she has left Splash and taken the plunge to set up her own marketing and design consultancy.
 
Fiona, 42, said: “It’s been an incredible time but I miss the involvement of the first days.

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“As a director you are quite removed from the actual creative process and I decided I wanted to be more hands on again. It was a big decision for me and it took me 12 months of soul searching before I told Tom but I just want to be more of a creative again.”
 
She has set up in a suitably stylish shop on School Lane in Didsbury with a colourful identity designed by Dave Simpson, former Director of Love Creative and, unsurprisingly other developers have not been slow in approaching the woman who helped create a property legend.
 
She is already helping West Properties with the look and style of their new Manchester headquarters on Princess Street which will help set their identity in the city, is talking to a smaller developer of bespoke multi-million pound modern mansions and already well on with a bar refurbishment in Heswell on the Wirral.
 
Fiona said: “Fourteen years ago, Urban Splash were one of the few companies that understood the importance of brand and marketing and I think we constantly evolved and expanded that branding. Now most companies are aware of it but not many get it right and it is important that the product lives up to the brand.”
 
Alongside the consultancy, she and her husband Adrian Kelly, owner of Windmill demolition, plan to expand their property portfolio.
 
They currently own six, a couple of terraced houses they rent out, one in Liverpool and the other in Urmston, an Urban Splash apartment at MOHO, another in the three Towers on Rochdale Road and a third at Longlands Mill in Stalybridge.

Their sixth property is their current home, a large Victorian semi in Heaton Moor but it’s on the market as they are looking for a place to renovate in the country and are currently negotiating for a property out near Nantwich.
 
Fiona said: “We really fancy doing our own project. Our approach to property investment is that you should spread the risk and not buy property all of the same type so, that if one sector of the market dips, hopefully another will rise.

Research

“And always do your research. I think my time may be split between design consultancy and looking for investment property.”
 
She is also considering launching her own property marketing vehicle after being appalled at the service from some estate agents. She and said: “I have always felt the high street estate agents could be more creative about how they market people’s homes and even offer more advice on changing a home from how the family used it to being a sellable commodity.”
 
At Splash her nickname apparently was Godmother, given to her by deputy chief executive Nick Johnson, so how does she feel about leaving behind the ‘family’?
 
She said: “I do miss them but at the same time I’m incredibly excited about getting out the fabric swatches and the paint cards and being able to come up with ideas and run with them to the end.
 
“It is taking some getting used to though – when I call a lunch meeting now I have to provide the sandwiches as well.”

Fiona Woodward- Kelly – 0161 445 1666 – or log onto her website at fionawoodwardkelly.com