Something old, something innovative and something new, would be one way to describe the vast array of quality Christmas and gift ranges Lesser & Pavey will bringing to Harrogate. Sarah Welsh spoke to Director Jonny Greves…

Last year Christmas was all about celebrating a wonderful first for Jonny Greves, while 2025 marks a significant milestone in his retail trade career with much-loved supplier Lesser & Pavey.

So, the fact the team is starting the new year with a stellar showing at the Harrogate Christmas & Gift show, promising to delight visitors with hundreds of new lines, is really in keeping with the festive mood.

Lesser & Pavey was founded way back in 1971 and has decades of experience in designing beautiful gift and homeware ranges. With their vast showroom based in Dartford, Kent, and with the company home to brand ‘The Leonardo Collection’, L&P is also renowned for championing British artists with a wealth of licensed product. It’s no wonder that Jonny has loved working there for the past decade.

“2025 marks 10 years of working with Lesser & Pavey and it’s absolutely flown by,” Jonny reveals. “I joined on April Fool’s Day 2015 if you can believe it and I’ve never looked back. I’ve also now been a director for six years which is one of the things I’m most proud of. Buying still makes up a lot of my role.

“Harrogate is a really nice show, it’s friendly and relaxed, run very well and the team is so easy to communicate with”

“Then in August last year my wife Rosie and I became first-time parents to twins Bobbi and Beau. We’ve not been getting much sleep but let’s just say the Christmas just gone was truly magical.”

Lesser & Pavey have always loved doing business face-to-face with their broad customer base, and the showroom is open five days a week and on weekends by appointment. This year they will also be taking more than 500 product lines to Christmas & Gift and a whopping 5,000 items to Birmingham’s NEC for Spring Fair in February.

“Harrogate is a really nice show, it’s friendly and relaxed, run very well and the team is so easy to communicate with,” Jonny says. “We don’t take as much product as we do to Spring Fair, but it’s a great opportunity to see customers old and new and to sell Christmas ranges prior to February. 

“We then take thousands of pieces to Spring Fair, including Christmas, gifting and everyday ranges. We launch brand new collections there and it’s the biggest show of the year for us.

“Our customers like to keep it simple, so are show stands are laid out to maximise sales and to make it as easy a buying experience as possible. We tend to keep things uniform, less eclectic, tie items that will sell well together.”

Jonny says Christmas homewares will be big for 2025, with new and improved versions of customer best-sellers, such as traditional Santa, robin and snowman ranges. But buyers can also expect a contemporary version of certain designs, including robins and highland cows, both currently very popular.

“We have beautiful, watercolour painted designs across homeware pieces, including mugs, coasters, trays, lap trays, jugs, cushions and place mats. One range might have up to 30 pieces, from table top to gift to classic Christmas. 

“People do like to collect our ranges and retail customers buy from right across the collections.”

Known for working with British artists on licensed homeware collections, Lesser & Pavey have a long-established relationship with Macneil Studios and the Jennifer Rose Gallery. Bug Art is another fruitful collaboration for the brand, and the team will be bringing a new seasonal homeware range to Christmas & Gift.

“A new artist we’re working with this year is Finola Stack. We’re continually on the lookout for new creatives to work with and she actually approached us. We’re always looking to do something new as well and Finola produces beautiful work featuring fun characters. Her ‘Animals Behaving Madly’ range is one such for us. Think highland cows dressed up with bagpipes and a pinny!

“A couple more licenses we’ve been working on for 2025 include Paper Shed Design and Robert James Hull.

“Our heritage style William Morris ranges – showcasing the iconic Fruits and Lodden artwork – continue to be very popular as well. Our William Morris Fruits collection will be slightly expanded for 2025 and we’ll have around 25 items in the Lodden collection, mostly tabletop and gift pieces.

“Novelty garden gnomes also are coming back in, and we have range of cheeky, tongue in cheek designs that are selling well.

“Fragrance is something that’s always evolving, but also always popular for us. We offer mainly diffusers with some candles and we have a lovely range of colours which are all beautifully boxed so they’re incredibly popular for gifting.

“We can’t wait to see customers old and new at Harrogate and, as we’re famed for, Lesser & Pavey really will have something for everyone.”

For more information visit: www.leonardo.co.uk