PC CARPETS & BEDS IN STORE AT In Store at... PC Carpets & Beds
While most flooring and furniture retailers were moving out of city centres, PC Carpets & Beds were moving in. Sarah Robinson goes in store to find out more.
From contract to city centre retail
Walking down the main shopping street in Preston, Lancashire it’s hard to miss PC Carpets & Beds’ flagship store. Located in a Grade II listed building on the corner of Fishergate and Lune Street the three-storey, double-fronted shop is an impressive sight and reminiscent of a Harrods of the north.
It’s not often that you find an independent flooring and furniture store on the high street but PC Carpets & Beds took the bold move to open the city-centre store five years ago, having been established as a contract flooring company since 2002. In fact this is where the name originates, PC standing for Preston Contract.
“We started out predominantly as contract flooring and were 80% contract and 20% retail,” says John Richardson, company partner and manager of the Lune Street store. “Now there has been a total reversal and it’s the other way, we’re 80% retail.”
At a time when there was a market shift and most retailers were heading to the out-of-town retail parks, surely it was a risk to open a city centre showroom? “It was a risk, especially as we were in a recession. But when we saw the building, in such a prime location, we just knew that there was nowhere else like it in Preston and nobody else was doing it so we took the chance. Thankfully it has paid off.”
The biggest risk, according to John, was that the company does not only deal in flooring. “We are more of a department store; with three floors we’ve got furniture, accessories and lighting. But the flooring is our absolute bread and butter and what we are all about.”
Beautifully Presented
The store is laid out in sections with soft flooring carpets and rugs displayed at the front; it’s what customers see first when entering from the Fishergate entrance. All of the swatches are neatly
displayed on the walls in point-of sale stands and fittings, creating a spacious and uncluttered feel.
At the back end a few steps lead down to the hard flooring, which is on show from the Lune Street side. A Karndean display table takes centre stage in the middle of the room with a wood section, laminates and engineered wood flooring each having their own place surrounding it.
The most sought-after flooring types are displayed in pride of place on the store floor. “Our most popular product at the moment is the Cumbrian Stone LVT, which we’ve centred around the Karndean display table. Then we added this Wood Oak, which is our most popular plank and put in a 5mm tramline around it, to show what we tend to do”, explains John.
Upstairs is home to the furniture and accessories, which are all arranged in realistic roomsets. The layout of the building allows this to be as realistic as possible as bedrooms are self contained with windows. The flooring chosen in each room further delineates the areas, from hard flooring in the dining room sets and hallways, leading to soft carpets in the bedrooms.
Tomorrow’s Retail Floors Summer 2015 | 19
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