Footwear Retailer of the month Cheryl Taylor talks to James Hoad of CF Hoad & Son
How did you get into footwear? Tell us about your background and your current business? At the age of 17, I started an apprenticeship
with my father. He gave me the opportunity to run our men’s department and I was responsible for merchandising, customer research, and forward order buying and planning. Obviously he was overseeing this to begin with, but he gave me a great deal of support and latitude when bringing new ideas into the Company. At the same time, I completed a 10 month course at the Society of Shoe fitters – I learnt so much on that course my favourite of which was learning about the bone structure in the feet. By the age of 23 my father offered me the
chance to manage our men’s and women’s store. He had cut down the number of days per week he was working but was still there for support and advice. A couple of years later I was given my Directorship and sole command of the men’s and women’s business. Today, we have just completed a refit. We
closed the store for a month while we ripped the entire store apart and rebuilt it with a more modern and contemporary look but with a warm and comfortable feel. All new lighting has been installed and the product we sell has suddenly been transformed and looks more desirable. To keep the costs down, I built new displays and
stud walls in my workshop at home, and brought in tradesman to carry out all electrical work. This has saved our business a lot of money but has been extremely hard work and at times stressful, but we completed this ahead of time and on budget. So as not to lose too much revenue, we opened a “pop-up” shop, just a few doors away and used this as a “clearance store” to sell the rest of our Autumn / Winter product. This proved to be very successful Business is tough in this current economic climate, and it is even more important that
business owners particularly on the High Street constantly look at new ways of keeping existing customers as well as attracting new. Choice of brands, latest fashion trends, social media and customer service are just a few of the ways in which we constantly re-evaluate. This has enabled us to maintain our customer base and keep the business flowing along at a constant level.
Where are your premises located and how many people do you employ? Our main two stores, the first ones that we opened are located on Sevenoaks High street; we also have a branch in Deal and one in Wandsworth, London. Overall we employ about 28 people over all four branches.
Tell us about your shop(s), the local area, your customers and their requirements? All of our shops are located in key positions within the town to target the desired market whether that be men's, lady's or children. Our original two shops are situated in Sevenoaks high street which is a fairly affluent area and an incredibly friendly town, we have our regular customers from the local area but we also have customers that come to us from miles away, either who have moved away over the years and still come back or who have been recommended by family and/or friends. Our customers vary in their requirements but what doesn’t change is the fitting – the shoes have to fit incredibly well and we pride ourselves on that. All of our staff are trained in fitting shoes and orthotic insoles and have an extensive knowledge of the brands that we stock which is one of the reasons I believe customers keep coming back – our personalised one to one fitting service.
Do you have an online shop/website and do you use social networking for business? Last year we set up our online website
www.hoadshoes.co.uk/shop which at the moment sells Men’s and Ladies shoes from our main branch in Sevenoaks however we are currently in the process of adding our Children’s range to the site. We have only recently started using social networking for our business, we currently have Facebook (Hoad Shoes), Twitter (@hoadshoes) and Instagram (Hoad Shoes) accounts which have proved to be quite popular.
How are you finding the footwear market currently? The Footwear market at the moment is
economically tough for everyone although we have been lucky enough to see a 10% increase this year on the back of two previous very difficult years. I do however enjoy thriving on the challenge of making the business more successful than the year before and see it as a challenge rather than an obstacle.
What’s selling well? Any particular trends? Which are your best selling footwear brands – and why? A few years ago footwear trends were going in
a completely different direction but now I have noticed that it has gone back to basics, the most popular products we have had this winter have been great looking quality leather boots and shoes. For Men I would say our best selling brand is Barker the classic city styles win every time along with the durability of the shoe. On the more casual side of things Josef Seibel and Steptronic are fantastic brands for us for their comfort and style. For women Gabor would probably be our best selling brand which again focuses on our main goal – comfort and fashion. We recently introduced the Irish brand Dubarry stocking a small selection of their footwear and clothing and
28 • FOOTWEAR TODAY
• APRIL 2013
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