5 Questions with Anthony Fraser – ROKBOX’s Commercial Director

Get to know the ROKBOX team through a series of interviews and insights.

Before joining ROKBOX as Commercial Director, Anthony Fraser trained in brand management with P&G. He has worked for 26 years in the packaging industry and, we are proud to say, has filed over 50 packaging industry patents.

1. What is your role at ROKBOX and what makes you excited about working for the company?

My role was initially to lead the ROKBOX product development. Working with our CEO Andrew, we came to understand how a better system of art packaging would behave and how to turn that into a design brief for our design team. This resulted in prototypes, endless testing and finally the range of cases we now offer. My second role has been to develop good, stable manufacturing partnerships for the production of our different cases and fixing devices, and then working with those suppliers and our Operations Director, Harriet, to optimize quality and supply chain flexibility. What has always excited and motivated me is seeing how innovation can transform industries and markets as well as give birth to great new businesses. Being able to work with ROKBOX from the very beginning – when it was literally a concept being discussed in a Railway Café – has been both challenging and immensely satisfying.

2. How do you stay up to date with emerging trends and technologies in the art industry, and how do you integrate these insights into ROKBOX?

We are fortunate that people in our team have very close working relationships, going back many years, with individuals throughout the industry. These relationships with museums, galleries, auction houses and art shippers provide us with invaluable feedback, criticism and encouragement, as well as keep us up to date on the latest trends.

3. What are some of the most effective marketing strategies and sales techniques for driving sustainability, and how do you measure the success of these efforts?

To be honest, to drive meaningful change in sustainability goes beyond marketing and sales messaging. It requires providing the tools (that is both products and services), which can support the radical changes in behaviour that are needed to really reduce environmental impacts. This is a balancing act between meeting normal industry expectations for performance (protection, safety, ergonomics, cost, etc.) and asking clients to change their practices (for example, reusing cases, renting cases, etc.).

4. How do you cultivate strong relationships with your clients and partners, and what role do these relationships play in the success of ROKBOX?

Probably our strongest tool, when working with both customers and partners, has been our commitment to generate and share data about the functioning of our cases so that they can see we are committed to objective measures of performance. We get frank and honest feedback from our customers and partners and they, in turn, know that we will respond with continuous improvement.

5. What are your hobbies and interests when you are not working in art logistics?

I’m a countryman and lucky to live in a beautiful part of rural England, in Rutland – the smallest county. I have a life-long interest in the welfare of deer and help run the local branch of the British Deer Society. But my greatest pleasure, when I have some spare time, is to steal off fishing for a few hours.?