Continental drifter
By Susan Pyle Dickenson -- Home Accents Today, 1/1/2007
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Brett Hatton turned a post-college adventure into a $40 million a year business when what began as a journey through India on a vintage Enfield Bullet motorbike turned into an 18-month odyssey by foot, bike, train, camel cart, bus and elephant. "My parents gave me the spirit of adventure," Hatton said. "They loved to see the world and often took my two brothers and me along." He admits to being a fearless 26-year-old, perhaps explaining why he didn't hesitate when two Uzi-toting Pakistani brothers invited him to see their warehouse of trunks, chests, tables and ancient cookery, the result of generations of indigenous craft work, and the beginning of what is now known as Four Hands.
Hatton spent his college years in Austin, Texas, earning a degree in film but grew up in Essex, England, where he enjoyed learning about the British Empire as a youth. "I also had an interest in old buildings, archaeology and other cultures, and wanted to be a photographer, especially a documentary film maker."
Upon his return to England, Hatton set up shop and filled it with art, photography, antiquities and Asian wares. In 1996 he headed back to Austin and opened a wholesale import business, eventually developing a few marketing and shipping strategies that landed key accounts with Crate & Barrel, Costco and Z-Gallerie.
Four Hands reached an annual sales number of $2.5 million by 1999, grossed $11.6 million in 2001, and projects 2006 sales at a number slightly higher than $40 million. The company has been recognized for its rapid growth more than a dozen times by Inc. Magazine and the Austin Business Journal and has received an equal number of industry honors. Earlier this year, Hatton was named Ernst & Young's regional Entrepreneur of the Year for 2006. Influences and InspirationHatton spends nine months of the year traveling the globe in search of "eco-friendly and ethnic-chic" finds for his showrooms in Atlanta, High Point and Austin, and overseeing production at Four Hands' factories in China and India. Home and family are important to him, and he tries to spend as much time as possible with his sons. "I travel a lot, but I'm very much a full-time father to Thomas (9) and Nicholas (5)," Hatton said. "They live with their mother, less than a mile and a half from my home in Austin, but they enjoy spending time at my house, which is like my sandbox. I'll bring in a new line, play around with it, and it's 'Dad's changed the living room again.'"
Four Hands' aesthetic is designed to appeal to the tastes of Cultural Creatives, the hippie-flavored demographic first identified by sociologist and author Paul H. Ray in 1996. Hatton describes them as "about age 28/30 to 50/55, educated, well-traveled people who like to be challenged and prefer great books to television," and refers to recent articles that have defined Cultural Creatives as people who demand authenticity at home, at work and in politics; share a deep concern for the environment and social-economic justice; and value relationships, spirituality and self-expression above the trappings of success.
"I've been all over, and I've spent a lot of time in Europe. I enjoy seeing the student work at the European shows which doesn't seem as 'status quo' as the American shows." A quick glance around the High Point showroom reveals a variety of color, texture and form, including a giant orb-shaped fiberglass fountain, and a green moss-covered arm chair suspended from a spinning dial attached to the ceiling of the showroom. He credits the fountain to "an Indian artist in the Philippines who patinates the surface to look like metal," and the hanging chair idea to JoAnn Antonelli, the mother of his close friend and companion, Heather Antonelli.
Hatton grins as he describes what may be his most unique procurement to date. "That would be three 150-year-old horse-drawn carriages that once belonged to a Maharajah, beautifully appointed in silk, leather and velvet upholstery, glass windows and adorned with the Maharajah's crest, that sat untouched in a barn for 100 years," he said. "I bought them for the center aisle, but they were too big, so now they belong to a horse rancher near Austin."
ChallengesAs the company continues to grow, Hatton says his biggest challenge is protecting the culture by finding and retaining people who feel the same way. Four Hands' core ideology values the whole person, heart and soul, celebrates a passion for individual and group excellence, invites employees to challenge the status quo, and practices the concept of "Brutal Honesty — Give it, Share it and Accept it." He has high standards, but stresses a healthy balance to his employees, and awards a three-month paid sabbatical to employees after they've been with the company five years.
As a global citizen, Four Hands gives back to the communities in which it conducts business. During the past two years, the gifts have included a partnership with UNICEF, fund-raising for the Asian tsunami victims and substantial contributions to two episodes of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Hatton recently launched Learn to Live, a nonprofit foundation to increase educational opportunities for young women in rural villages. "Learn to Live was born of a dream to build a school to educate daughters of Four Hands' factory workers in India," Hatton said. Land has been dedicated for the effort, and if all goes according to plan, he hopes to break ground on the first school next year.
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