England's Goodwood Estate has a good story to tell China

By Cecily Liu (China Daily) Updated: 2015-02-09 07:44

As a business, Goodwood Estate turns over about 70 million pounds ($106 million) a year, and employs 600, but as it is an estate with great heritage and history, Lord March says it is not run like any other business. "We are entrepreneurial but we cannot just dispose of things that are not successful. For example, I cannot just suddenly say we're not doing something anymore because it's not working. Everything we do is an important part of our story."

Goodwood's history goes back to Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, 1st Duke of Lennox, the illegitimate son of Charles II of England and his mistress Louise de Kerouaille, who occupied Goodwood house in 1697. Over the centuries the estate was passed down within the family and different family members' passion for their own sporting activities has helped the venue build up its collection of sports.

For example, the 2nd Duke of Richmond was particularly interested in cricket and he drew up the rules, so the estate now holds the earliest written rules of cricket in its archive.

Although many sports have existed in the estate's history, Lord March is the one who has turned Goodwood from a heritage estate into a luxury experience and has made it commercially successful.

"I've been keen to develop the brand," he says. "I'm interested in the market, I'm interested in telling the story, presenting the history. I want people to have an exciting experience."

Before Lord March took over the estate he was an advertising photographer in London. Having had a passion for film and photography since the age of 10, he left school at the first possible opportunity and at 17 worked for the film director Stanley Kubrick on the film Barry Lyndon.

He says the creativity he found in photography has helped him with creating a strategy for the estate, and so did his experience and skills working with people accumulated over his photography career.

Unlike many estates in the United Kingdom that also own external property that can generate rent to help with running costs of the estates themselves, Goodwood does not, and this creates pressure to generate revenue. Generating revenue from the Goodwood name in a way that cannot cause physical damage to the estate is a desirable choice for Lord March as he eyes expansion, the United States and China being seen as key markets.