Vol.17

The Cotton Nouveau that Changed My Life (Part I)

Ms. Masuda, a towel sommelier who oversees three directly-managed stores as the Kyoto Store Manager and Store General Manager, joined IKEUCHI ORGANIC five years ago and was eager to join the company, fulfilling her wish when the Kyoto Store opened. She is loved by many customers in the Kansai region for her excellent communication skills and hospitality, and she talks to us about her encounter with IKEUCHI ORGANIC and her vision for the future.

Kyoto Store Manager Masuda

My first encounter with IKEUCHI was Cotton Nouveau

–Please tell us how you came to join IKEUCHI ORGANIC.

It was the preview of Cotton Nouveau, which was launched in 2011. My husband knew Ricky (Toshiki Sato, designer of Cotton Nouveau), and he invited me to the preview, which is how I met IKEUCHI ORGANIC. I remember touching IKEUCHI ORGANIC towels for the first time at the Cotton Nouveau 2011 event and being very impressed. I remember thinking, “What a towel!

–When you touched them, did you think they were different from the towels you had used before?

No! 　That’s when I remembered that I had loved towels since I was a little girl. I had a favorite towelette, a blue one that I used when I was about 3 years old, and I couldn’t keep it out of my hands for a long time.

（He was a very shy child.)

He was really, really shy. (Laughs) She was not good at new things, and she was useless without that towel. (Laughs) When the towels were used until they were old, my mother would cut them down to the size of today’s wash towels and throw away the soiled ones, but I would cry so hard that she would bring them back again.

When I touched the 2011 Cotton Nouveau, she let me have one that was cut and sewn into the size of that washcloth, and I felt as much love from Cotton Nouveau as I did from that towel. I thought to myself, “Oh, I used to love towels.

IKEUCHI ORGANIC was the opposite of fast fashion

–Did you want to join IKEUCHI ORGANIC at that time?

I want to join. I mean, I wanted to join IKEUCHI ORGANIC, but my job at the time was working for a trading company doing fast fashion, so I was actually working there because I was telling myself I was doing what I was doing. I imported a lot of products made in large quantities in China and Bangladesh. I was working as an importer who delivered them to customers, but I had some doubts about the clothes being returned (returned) or being in a place where they were “B” products. I thought to myself, “If there are enough girls who are excited to wear these clothes and go on a date tomorrow, then this might be worthwhile. I think that IKEUCHI ORGANIC is not about telling them to do so.

If we were to express our company in one word, it would be “true. A company without lies.

–How did you feel when you actually joined IKEUCHI ORGANIC?

If I were to use a single character to describe this company in my mind, it would be ” true. True of truth. There are no lies, good or bad. Even if they are lying somewhere, it is understandable. Everyone is serious about making things in such a stoic manner, and what they propose starts working immediately. Also, they make things stoically, and their way of thinking is stoic, but they do not speak stoically to others. I often tell people at the store that they can buy towels at 100-yen stores, and that they can choose from a wide variety of towels. But if a small child’s mother buys towels only at 100-yen stores, the child may think that towels are bought at 100-yen stores when he grows up. So there are many different kinds, and the final choice is yours. I think this company is the same way, and I really think that they don’t deny it.

First time serving customers. I couldn’t even wrap a gift at first.

–Did they tell you that you would be the manager of the Kyoto store…right after you joined the company?

I don’t know what they said… (Even before I joined the company), when I called the representative, I said, “I am the Kansai branch manager,” and in various places, I answered the phone or wrote e-mails saying, “This is Masuda, the manager of the Kansai branch.

–I’m the manager of the Kansai Branch.

It’s funny, isn’t it? I have been doing BtoB ( *1) for a long time now, so I have been involved in trading and production management, and I have seen all the processes from yarn to finished products. So this was my first BtoC ( *2) job, and I was scared at first. I didn’t have any know-how, and even though I was asked to be the store manager, I couldn’t even wrap a present. Before opening the store, I practiced wrapping all the boxes in the house with 3 or 4 sheets of newspaper.

–I thought that Mr. Masuda’s customer service was that of an experienced customer service person.

That’s what the president says to me, but I think talking to people has always been the same from B to B. In the end, I think work is about communication with people. In the end, I think work is about communication between people, and I don’t think that will change, but I’ve never worked as a cashier or even part-time. I still say to the representative, “How could you let me be the store manager? I wonder why they let someone like that manage the store. （When I ask him about it, he just laughs.

Continue to Part 2

Interview June 2016
Interview and text by Mutaguchi and Kamio
Photographer/ Yuji Kimura (Kimura Photo Office)

Notes
*1: Business-to-business business transactions Business-to-Consumer
*2: Business-to-consumer business transactions Abbreviation for Business-to-Consumer