SUPPLIER PROFILE | Phoenix Bathrooms Phoenix
Bathrooms’ Belgravia
furniture in Antique Rose
“Though we had effectively become
a distributor, we didn’t want to go down the traditional route of selling brands. We only wanted to sell our own products. To that effect, I believe we were one of the first distributors to go down the own brand route.” Having worked in the family business since the age of 16 – from the warehouse and factory floor to his current role of MD – it’s fair to say that Richard has effectively had an unofficial apprenticeship in bathroom business management. Products under the Phoenix brand are designed and developed by Richard and the UK team in partnership with manufacturing partners in Europe and the Far East.
Evolved
“Over the past 20 years, Phoenix has evolved from a leading whirlpool bath specialist into a bathroom distributor with one of the most exclusive and all-encompassing ranges available on the market today,” Richard says. “We offer a broad range so that our
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retail partners have something to meet the needs of every customer. But what’s key is that because we understand the market, not only are the products straight- forward in terms of fitting, but the range itself is comprehensive but not overbearing.” To enhance its pos-
We’ve aligned ourselves with independents because there’s synergy between us on quality and service
ition and to maximise its furniture manufacturing capabilities and increase its service to independent retailers, in 2017 the Sharps made the decision to acquire Acorn, a local furniture manufacturer with a loyal customer base.
Integrated into the Phoenix Bath- rooms company, they still manufacture made-to-order furniture for Acorn’s original customer base, under the Acorn brand, as well as producing stock furniture to meet the needs of Phoenix Bathrooms’ customers.
“We invested £1 million in machinery for our new production facility to enable us to run the furniture production side of the business as efficiently as possible and enable future growth,” Richard explains.
“We
wanted
more control over the furniture we could supply. When you’re sourcing product, you’re often limited by the choice you can offer. By bringing the
manufacturing in house, not only can we be flexible and agile with lead times, but we can also react to the needs of our retailers in terms of trends and styles their customers are demanding.” According to Richard, this, along with the fact it holds around £10m retail value worth of stock at its warehouse, puts the company in a strong position – particularly during the pandemic. “We offer 13 different furniture ranges, with IZONE being the most comprehensive,” he says. “We’re selling around 40,000 units per year.
That gives you an idea of our capacity and popularity of our product.” As a supplier that deliberately changed its strategy during the pandemic and one that imports a significant proportion of its portfolio, understandably kbbreview is curious to know how it dealt with that challenging period.
Covid challenges
“When the pandemic hit, we decided outright that if we had to bank roll the business while it played out to ensure we came out if it the other side, then that’s what we’d do.
“Because of the new strategy and our focus on independents, we obviously saw a drop-off in business while showrooms battled to understand if they could open. But, once they were officially able to open then, like the entire industry, we saw demand increase and our average order value has tripled.”
As part of its new strategy and the fact it had realigned its product quality
· January 2023
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