RETAILER PROFILE | Cambridgeshire Bathrooms
1.
magic is the
2
Cambridgeshire Bathrooms doubled in size this year with the addition of a second showroom. Vicki Evans talks to owner James Cardwell about the reasons behind the move
number J
60
ames Cardwell has always wanted to expand his business. But when he was handed a ticking time bomb by his
landlord to vacate his showroom in Sawston within the next two-and-a-half years, he had to bring forward his plans to open a second. I meet Cardwell in the Sawston showroom, just south of Cambridge and, after a quick tour and my interview, we head 20 miles north to his new premises just outside Fenstanton, which had its soft launch in September.
The new store is not intended to be a replacement. It does, however, provide a base for the business when Cardwell eventually has to move out of Sawston in the next few years. His long-term plan is to have two showrooms.
“It is difficult to plan business when you have that hanging over your head, but having this new site gives me much more flexibility,” says Cardwell. “I have two-and-a-half years to go on the lease and maybe next year, when the new showroom is more
established and is a more consistent contributor to the overall business, I can spend 12 months finding a new showroom to replace the southern one.” Cardwell set up the business with two partners in 2002. Both have since left, leaving him as the sole owner. The company survived the recession by selling kitchens for a few years as a way to diversify its offering, but now the company is once again selling just bathrooms and Cardwell reports that it is growing year-on-year despite the current economic uncertainty.
Security
Now he has a mortgage on his new Fenstanton showroom and the profits from the business will help to revamp the space, which means there is now greater security in the company. “With the new showroom, it was important to plan and decide at quite an early stage what we wanted to achieve. What product ranges I wanted to have in-store,” says Cardwell. “I did have help to
kbbreview · December 2019
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76
