Kitchens by J S Geddes | INSIGHT
JIM GEDDES, KITCHENS BY J S GEDDES
‘ Fight for every enquiry to succeed’
After disrupted times post-Covid and Brexit, the owner of Kitchen by JS Geddes is looking forward to a successful 2024 after improving his marketing and diversifying into a number of different market areas
e have encountered many difficult years recently with Brexit, Covid and lockdowns, which ultimately caused product delays and a lack of confidence in our industry. We have endured these challenges while trying to keep our teams of installers, sales and administration motivated. Products are back to being fairly readily available, but we are now experiencing a massive price hike from several of our suppliers with some having three price increases in one year. We have to wonder if all these increases are justifiable. This also affects our integrity with clients – do we try to pass on an increase or do we swallow up yet another price hike. Hopefully next year will see a closer return to normal product pricing. Footfall in 2023 was extremely poor at the start of the year, but by constantly working on our SEO rankings, holding events and marketing our business as much as possible, we have experienced a continuous increase in traffic, which coincided with an increase in sales figures getting closer to the expected levels.
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We either had the option of sitting back and complaining about the lack of footfall or getting ourselves out there – the latter worked best
From a J S Geddes point of view, we either had the option of sitting back and complaining about the lack of footfall or getting ourselves out there – the latter worked best. But now we eagerly look forward to 2024. What have we learned and how will we make the necessary changes to our business that will see us not only survive but prosper on the way ahead? We must treat the new year as we did in 2023 – that means fight for every enquiry, keep marketing the business, maintain our commitment to the internet rankings and generally, aim to be better than the competition and even look to different avenues to keep selling our products.
Alternate avenues We have all discussed the additional markets that the kitchen furniture industry allows. While we have all seen varying degrees of success with these products, we need to focus fully on these sales avenues and set our businesses up to properly handle the opportunities. Firstly, if we have the floor space, then the way forward is to display. J S Geddes has already added a utility room, a pantry room and a contract kitchen display to our showroom and are starting to enjoy sales opportunities happening just by having something extra to offer our clients.
After full internal company discussions and planning our decision to diversify into different revenue streams was taken, we are now offering our clients: replacement appliances – supplied and fitted; pantry rooms; utility rooms; media walls; home offices and contract kitchens.
The largest investment was a decision to return to the quality end of the contract market with massive alterations to
our upstairs offices to allow us the facilities to install a cost- effective contract kitchen display. This has been beneficial to our builder/architect database and has increased our sales. We have looked back over the past 10 months and are pleased that these plans are coming to fruition. Turnover has increased for the above market sectors and, with our normal targets for kitchen sales, we find that these sales combined are helping the business reach targets.
Traditional values
Another subject that is important to our business and to our clients is sustainability. We need to fulfill the needs of the current generation without compromising the needs of future generations, while ensuring a balance between growth and environmental care.
Businesses have a responsibility to care for the
environment while still selling product. Address the needs of the business with the needs of the environment. Change to electric vehicles, add in solar panels, change showroom lighting and heating and do any other small changes in 2024 that help the environment. Every business is changing and while change can be good, we can fight against the bigger players in the industry in 2024 with the positives that only the smaller business can implement. It’s not always ground-breaking ideas that win business, sometimes it’s just good old-fashioned service.
Ditch the automated phone systems and answer your phone manually. I think I can speak for
all of us when I say we all hate when we call a business and we have to go through a procedure to speak to someone. Also call back when you say you will and do what you say you will do. These are little things, but they add up to make your business stand out in trying times.
THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY FOR RETAILERS IN 2024 IS...
DIVERSIFICATION Look at how to diversify your product offering and differ- ent product avenues. And don’t forget sustainability. Make changes to your business that benefit the environ- ment and ensure clients are aware of your commitments.
December 2023 • 33
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