Liz Lawson
In 1994, Liz Lawson joined the family firm of Lawsons, which had started in Plymouth in 1904, originally as a ironmongers and tool manufacturers. After a number of developments, Lawsons established itself in the late 1970s as a specialist kitchenware firm. Liz entered the firm as manager of their Tavistock store. On her father’s retirement in 1998, she took over as the Managing Director and set about developing the scope of the firm’s wares to include linens. In the last twenty years, Lawson’s has expanded significantly, to include trading on the internet as well as expanding its stores. She has prioritised the cultivation and retention of customer loyalty, online and in stores, and sees the future of the firm as bright, despite sadness over the closure in 2020 of the Plymouth store thanks to recent events and long term trends in online shopping. As well as sustaining and expanding this Plymouth family firm, she has made an active contribution to developments in the city, including fund-raising for the local efforts of the Rainy Day Trust, focusing on supporting home improvement schemes for those in need. She was also a founder of the Plymouth Flavour Fest, in 2003, to showcase local foods and the recipes using them – Flavour Fest has, from the start, been popular and remains the south west’s biggest free food festival. In 2005, she was one of the founders of the Plymouth City BID (Business Improvement District), and it is a measure of its impact that it has been renewed, in 2020, for a further five years. She has the indomitable energy and imagination, as well as business talent and philanthropic zest, that characterised women like Nancy Astor.