Luck and Fuller | RETAILER PROFILE
success, it hasn’t had to do much marketing. It sits proudly next to one of Billericay’s busiest crossroads, and two sides of the showroom have floor-to-ceiling windows, offering near-pano- ramic views inside. “We’ve got single glazing, so we hear people talk as they walk past,” Kenneth Luck explains, “we hear them saying things like: ‘look at that copper bath – isn’t it lovely?’” As if to demonstrate his point, for the entirety of kbbreview’s time at Luck & Fuller, it became impossible to ignore the parade of pedestrians who stopped for a look in at the window display, or the drivers gazing in while waiting at the nearby junction. Formerly a sales rep for a UK
O
supplier, Luck has seen his fair share of showrooms, and one of the things that struck him was their tendency to be over-reliant on all-grey or white colour themes. He’s got a firm belief that “the bathroom industry needs to step its game up a little
bit,
and we need to really have
some with colours”. Luck
He wanted the &
Fuller fun
ne of the most surprising things about Luck & Fuller is that despite its
we
design
for
customers
aren’t
necessarily our bathrooms, but they’re supposed to reflect them and their personalities, so they can feel really happy using them,” says Luck, “It’s a space you use multiple times a day, so why not try and make it perfect?”
Inside view
At around 850 sq ft, the showroom is far from the biggest, but it’s cleverly managed to fit in 16 individual display bays, each with their own space to breathe and stand out. Individual displays are also “room-sized” to match common bathroom config- urations. For example, customers can see a classical bathroom the size of a traditional WC, or a gothic-inspired space the size of a family bathroom. Most of
the displays also have
I honestly believe that if you don’t move forwards, you’re going backwards
showroom not just to show off products, but to serve as a space where customers could get ideas about the potential of their own bathroom spaces. This extends to the business’s ethos too: “The bathrooms
feature walls to show how colour can be used in dramatic or subtle ways. Luck is keen to point out the nook at that back of the showroom that serves as a tile display area. Like the rest of the studio, this space is completely bursting with colour, and is presided over by Luck & Fuller’s interior designer, Charlotte.
In terms of suppliers, it aims to offer a selection of products at different price points. Laufen, Dansani and Catalano products make up most of the furniture in the showroom, with a few specialised products from
Vanity Hall, BC Designs and Thomas Crapper included too. In terms of brassware, Luck & Fuller mostly retails Gessi, Armera, JTP and Vado. The idea for Luck & Fuller came during perhaps the single most
frightening business era in recent memory: the dreaded Covid lockdowns. Given the economic uncertainty that was rife at the time, Luck didn’t want to be beholden to another employer, so decided to go into business for himself – with his father-in-law as his business partner.
Humble beginnings The choice was primarily driven by a love of the bathroom products he’d known throughout his career. Another stroke of luck was the fact that there appeared to be a gap in the market for a bathroom retailer in Billericay. This – combined with the
showroom’s extremely visible location – created a perfect storm. “We actually had customers queueing outside the door from day one,” Luck explains. “By the time we opened, we were booked up for three months, which was great. That quickly changed to six, and then to nine.”
One of the things that Luck mentioned in his 2022 awards entry was a desire to grow both the business and its team. “I think back then, we had two installation teams, and it was just me in here. “Now, we’ve got an accounts manager, an interior designer, and a junior designer starting in the next
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