entrepreneurs 21
Pictures by Angus Thomas
but its bringing home to your home value: there’s much more to us than just banging it out at four- years interest-free and half-price.
How will the company continue to grow and evolve?
Online is obviously an extraordinary channel of opportunity so we’re pushing online, developing rapidly. We’re doing our own videos for online, and we’re working on Village Direct online, doing furniture to let. We’re going to open one or two stores a year, we’re just moving our Croydon store to a bigger building which is 40,000 feet, we’ve got a new store in Ipswich opening later this year, and we could open a couple more stores around London. We’ve got the London Bed Company which we trade in Selfridges and we do incredibly well there. We did have two or three London Bed Company shops but we’ve learnt that little furniture shops don’t really work for us, we’ve
got to have a big shop with a big manager, a big budget and big advertising, that’s what works. There’s plenty of places for us to go yet, if we want to. There isn’t really a need, we’re a different kind of business – not that we lack ambition, but I don’t want to go on the stock market, I don’t want to be the biggest, but when you get to our size, all of a sudden everyone thinks ooh you better double your stores, go on the stock market, get private equity backing, make millions and appear in the Rich List and I couldn’t think of anything worse, I’m not interested in it at all, I’m not driven by money.
Last year you chose to invest for the future over profits?
Yes, we’re a privately-run business, all the shares are owned by the people who operate it. The market is obsessed with profit and returns, even to the expense of your future and your people. If you could get short-term gain without jeopardising long-term prosperity that would be great, but if your short-term gain is at the cost of long-term prosperity, at too much cost…that’s a pretty big balancing act. We had outgrown our central distribution so moved from a 55,000 sq ft central warehouse to a 100,000 sq ft one, and we’ve put a learning and development academy in there for training, the online team is in there, and a centralised service with a whole new system, so that’s all investing for the future, and this is nobody else’s money but our own. We’ll keep the business secure, we know what we need to do, even if the market is tough.
What would you consider your greatest achievement?
Being here. We’re the only management buyout in our sector that’s ever survived, and we’ve done it twice. I love having a strong business that has a purpose. To me, entrepreneurship is about providing something that people want, it’s amazing satisfaction, absolutely amazing.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – JUNE 2013
My achievements are seeing other people’s achievements, seeing my people grow. Last year we gave 47 10-year long-service awards on one night, and three 20-year awards – so, developing a business where people want to work, and like it, and stay. A couple of years ago we had a 2 billion of sales, and had served over a million customers from one shop. That sounds like things that Tesco and John Lewis do, and here we are, quietly getting on with it, no fuss.
Do you have any unfulfilled ambitions?
Hundreds. I’m not the youngest bloke going but I’m not the oldest either, I keep pretty fit. The biggest thing is that I want the business to go on and on and on, and to do the things that we believe in – serve customers right, give a customer a good deal and do what you say you’re going to do. Keep the quality of the product, but just find ways of making it seriously good value. Just make it better is the main ambition, you always make it better, always.
If you couldn’t get to work for a day, what would you do instead? What makes you tick?
I’ve always got in. I broke my ankle once, went to the hospital and said “take the plaster off, I can’t go to work when I’ve got that on it”. Broke it in three places, got screws in it, took it off 24 hours later, got in the car and went to work. I’d get to work. But in fairness, I’ve got a shop 10 miles from me, or another one 6 miles away. Work for me is a shop, I love retail, and I love furniture. You must be passionate, passion is right at the top in any business; you’ve got to love the product. So I’d get to the shops, or I’m a great rugby fan so I go to most of the games, I go to all the Six Nations, or I might just go and pick up my grandchildren and take them somewhere. There’s always plenty to do.
Details:
www.furniturevillage.co.uk www.businessmag.co.uk
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