RETAIL | Business check
Sola Kitchens
We’re probably doing about the same amount of business this year that we were last year. In previous years, we’ve seen about 30% year-on- year growth, but this year it’s flattened out a bit. But I think, compared with a lot of other companies and from what we hear, we’re probably doing quite well.
Brexit is affecting the whole industry. I think that when there’s such uncertainty in the market, people are somewhat reluctant to commit to a new house or a project and the whole property market is affected by Brexit-related uncertainty.
I think we’re probably doing
quite well
Property prices have gone down. It seems like developers are having difficulties shifting their stock. Many people are just waiting to see what’s going to happen. People are still building, renovating and moving, but I think some people who would have started things in the past year are putting it off. We are involved in contract work, though that’s a
smaller percentage of our business. That has declined a bit, but it hasn’t affected us too much, as we don’t do lots of contract work. We fill a niche market as we offer completely bespoke Scandinavian furniture – and, for what we do, we are very competitive. So I think that’s why we’re doing well and better than some of our competition.
Regarding our strategies for success, I‘d say our niche with the Scandinavian furniture has proven very successful, plus we have an amazing design team who care deeply about our customers. We don’t have massive showrooms and try to operate efficiently, which allows us to keep costs and prices down.
Hi-Spec Design Sebastian Saffari, marketing director
Kallums Bathrooms Matthew Kallum, director
Business is okay. It’s not booming, it’s not brilliant, but it’s ticking over and keeping us busy. People seem to be holding back. We’re getting lots of enquiries and people want to do their bathrooms up, but they’re just holding back and hesitating about spending money. They’re hesitant about buying, unsure about the state of the housing market and how that might change. There’s just uncertainty. Brexit is a factor. We’re not involved in the contracts sector really but, from what I hear from our suppliers, that side of the business is down for all the same reasons I’ve mentioned.
We have more work than our team can currently handle
I would say the average age our customers is about 45 and the average spend on a bathroom is about £18,000. We subcontract our installers, but I project- manage the entire process to ensure I’m present for important decision-making. We do some marketing. We do search engine optimisation and Google Ads and we have a decent social media presence.
Business was a little bit slower around March before the Brexit negotiations and I think people were holding back to wait and see what happened, but now it is good. The general feeling at the moment is that things are starting to pick up. We’re quite busy with private clients. I think people are aware that Brexit is going to be drawn out until at least October – and even then it might not happen, so they’re choosing to go ahead.
I would say our busiest time is generally around April, as people want work completed in time for summer, and we also have issues in summer with factories in Italy, so people are keen to get their orders in before then. We are involved in the contract sector and that will be the one that is most affected by Brexit – these projects can be worth billions if you look at the whole thing. We’ve been around for 26 years so are well established with some trusted clients who trust us to deliver. We sell Pronorm, Euromobil – both the kitchen and living room furniture – and we’ve just started working with Minacciolo – they’re an Italian brand who do both contemporary and traditional ranges. We also sell Allmilmo. In terms of how our suppliers could help us, I guess they could be more proactive in directing prospective customers towards us when they’re contacted directly. There aren’t many retailers in the country that do some of the brands we do, so that would be nice. Marketing is another area that could really be improved by most of our suppliers.
Marketing could be improved by most of our suppliers
70 kbbreview · August 2019
I would say our strategy for success is just about finding the very best people to work with us and offering excellent, personalised service to each of our customers. We’re currently in the process of interviewing for new staff because we have more work than our team can currently handle. And with some extra staff we can focus a bit more on the marketing side of the business.
One way that brands could help their retailers is by delivering direct to customers. Sometimes they do, and the most efficient we have found at delivering direct are Hansgrohe and the distributor Brausch.
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