RETAILER PROFILE | Draw A Bath
Presentation area and Duravit Luv display
to the individual client and project and that is a huge differentiator for us. When a customer comes into our showroom, we spend a lot of time getting to know them, understanding what they want and need. There are so many trends out there that to narrow that down to one seems like an awful waste.” He adds: “But a number of our competitors always
use the same products in every project, and they buy that product in bulk. I am sure it is very profitable, but for me it is a little soulless.”
Contract sector
Draw A Bath installs around 34 to 40 bathrooms a year at between £15,000 and £60,000 each, plus some supply-only. It employs between three and five subcontracted fitting teams plus a full-time designer. Evans reveals that recently they have made inroads into the contract sector, targeting small developments of three to seven houses that align with their offering. He says they are currently working on a project for seven four-bedroom houses just around the corner from the showroom. He says: “We also do the design and that is where we add value. Bathrooms seem to cause developers headaches. They haven’t got the skill set for it. So we take that over and manage it as though we were installing the project, even though we’re not.” When asked what product areas are on the up for them, they confirm that spa and wellness products are a growing market. “That is very much a growing market for us,” Cunningham says. “We display Dornbracht, which majors on the well-being and spa areas, and Effegibi, which makes steam and sauna products.” Evans agrees: “We have a fully functioning steam room and encourage customers to bring their bathers and try it out. We have had good success with steam rooms, and we intend to do more. “I think our biggest job so far was £60,000. It was an incredible room.” Another area they do well in is shower toilets, such as the Geberit Aquaclean. They have one in the customer toilets. Cunningham says: “Once you have used one, you usually want one.”
Then, after one year’s normal trading, this new business was hit by the pandemic. “Fortunately, the business was in a strong position before the first
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Left: Imperial Astoria Deco. Centre: Matki Radiance enclosure and Duravit Vero Air vanity and WC. Right: Artelinea Dama vanity
lockdown and we came out in a strong position,” he says. “We were 12 months into trading and then told to close. March, April, May and half of June were kind of lost, but enquiries continued to come through. So when we reopened the showroom in June, within a couple of weeks sales were back to where we were before.”
To walk into our showroom and choose only from what Royd and I have narrowed down to what we perceive as the best product offering, is quite refreshing for customers
Mark Cunningham, co-owner
Another lockdown At the time of our interview, they are locked down again, but had installers going out and continuing to work. Cunningham confides: “Going through to August/September [2021], if we didn’t sell another bathroom, there is still plenty going on. We are booking installs into Q4 with a healthy pipeline of jobs. If anything, this current lockdown has given us an opportunity to take stock of where we are and put the effort into the
e-commerce
website that we need.” But does running an e-commerce website fly in the face of their highly service-oriented business model? Evans counters:“No,
because our major USP online will be service. The site is being built with user experience at the fore front in terms of ease of use. Like in the showroom, we are not collecting brands, we are being very selective in terms of products, how we display them and what information we give. We don’t want it to be confusing. Ultimately though, the area where I guess we will score pretty highly will be delivery and communication with the customer.” He elaborates: “We are very much focusing on scheduling delivery runs with a white-glove service with two people on a van. We will take it into whatever room the customer chooses and take the packaging away, so it will very much be service-focused.” Evans says that from day one they will do certain deliveries themselves – particularly the high-value items. “That will be our differentiator. It’s not just pile it high and sell it cheap – it’s strategically placed products and exceptional service.” And so what is in the future for Draw A Bath? Cunningham admits that they are planning a second showroom towards the back end of this year or early 2022. He says: “We moved into a new 5,000sq ft warehouse in September last year and so we have got the capacity to grow. We want to open new branches, but the operational side of the business needs to grow in tandem with sales.”
· May 2021
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