“That’s something I’m looking to push now, not in a big way yet. I just want to make sure I get it right – take it slowly and do it in a correct manner,” he says, “At the moment, we are supplying specific


postcodes – we go down to Cornwall, up to London, and Birmingham, and into Cardiff. With websites, it’s quite difficult to start because you don’t make any money. “For example, if you drive to Birmingham


to deliver one product, you’ve not made any money – it’s about going through that pain barrier until we can go up to Birmingham with a full lorry. I’m just in that transition period – we have 10 drivers and five vans on the road every day at the moment, but I’m hoping within six months we’ll be able to double that.” “I think people from outside of Bristol will


start to see the NE Appliances brand,” Ben says. “People will start link up with our brand and our name. I don’t want to take over the world. I don’t want to be the biggest, I just want to do it right and I want to do it in a controlled manner and maintain our service.” Ben says developing the new store during lockdown was the biggest challenge, with up


be easy. As a couple of months passed by, this store came up – I live 15 minutes away over the hill– and one day I drove past and just thought, this is the place – 22,000 cars a day pass the shop, which is six miles from our previous location. “It was a completely hollowed out shell; I negotiated and got a really good deal on it, signed the paperwork and got underway designing the showroom. It was completely designed by me and Otrovez, a company that designs a lot of KBB stands; Exhibitions & Displays Direct (EDD), a local company in Bristol, built the store. We’ve invested £900,000 in the new showroom.” Ben says he wanted the store to have a


lifestyle feel and fulfil customer needs – there are 650 products on display.


May & June 2021 “There aren’t many places you can shop


where you can buy a £25,000 cooker and one for £160 and have that full range,” he says. “The store looks exactly like the drawing. I


presented it to the manufacturers – I wanted it to be a purpose-built appliance showroom. While manufacturers want their brand to come across the way they want, I don’t like it when all the stands are different sizes and not fitting right. Instead, the store flows with a consistent design that shows off the products but also offers the best customer journey. “A few of the manufacturers are still to see the


showroom, but when I presented it to them, they all said that they wanted to be a part of it.” Now that the store is open, Ben says his


attention next is going to be on growing the website.


‘‘ Overnight, the replacement market kicked in


to 100 people on-site and he was the project manager.


“I was getting up at four in the morning, going home at 8pm,” Ben says. “It was a pretty rough ride, but I did everything in the building. I lived and breathed this project. We put it together in six weeks from start to finish. “I’m looking forward to the manufacturers seeing it, because I think they’re going to be blown away. We are the destination store in Bristol and Bath for appliances.” Ben says that 70% of his business is done over the phone. “I wanted to invest quite heavily in a call


centre,” he says, “we’ve been training the staff on www.ierdaily.co.uk | 17


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