the BIG interview


the phones to basically sell remotely rather than face-to-face and they’re smashing it. We also have a direct line into customer service.” On the shop floor, displays follow the


curvature of the building and EDD has done a fantastic job to get the displays looking so good.


An area of the replacement showroom is the best buys area, where five products are displayed each month, which reflect the promoted products on the website. The Trade Wall is an important area for the business and Ben has developed a trade card with standard discounts for tradespeople. He says: “I want to really grow this area. We


have lot of trade customers, including property management, kitchen fitters, landlords and builders. We want to start picking that business up; we


have Screwfix next door which opens at 7am – we have trade products that can be collected from our store from 7am; by opening earlier we have an extra two hours to capture that


‘‘ We have 10 drivers and five vans on the road


market. “With the trade card, they can get 10% off anything in the shop – not just what’s on the Trade Wall.” In terms of new suppliers, NE Appliances now stocks Miele, which Ben says he wasn’t


18 | www.ierdaily.co.uk


previously able to get.


“BSH is our flagship manufacturer and we sell Bosch, Neff and Siemens in freestanding and built-in,” he says.


‘‘ Retailers need to invest in their businesses


For built-in, Ben has selected eight core brands to support. The trade brand is Montpelier, and the other brands are Hotpoint, Caple, AEG, Bosch, Neff, Siemens and Liebherr. “In the past, I was really successful with events and cookery days, so we’re going to do a lot of that up here and we can do live streaming too. We really want to bring this to life, when we can get some crowds in here.” The business employs 40 staff, which includes eight sales staff on the shopfloor and eight staff on the phones. Looking at the sector, Ben says: “The independent sector is still alive, but retailers need to invest in their businesses. The world has moved forward again; the internet came along and independent retailers struggled to keep up with that. “I would say either try the online side of


things, or invest in your showroom and bring it up a notch.”


Ben also highlights that customer buying habits are changing all the time. “Online has grown massively over the last


year and a lot of older people, that would never have purchased online ever before, are starting to,” he says. While showing me around the store Ben drew


attention to the timeline wall in the entrance of the store. “My dad started this from absolutely nothing


– I don’t want to get rid of the Nailsea Electrical heritage which we stand for, which is great customer service, reliability and expert advice, that’s why people come back to us time and time again,” Ben says. “I want people to understand that NE Appliances isn’t a new business, it has been around for a long time, we might appear now to be a big national brand, but we are an independent and proud of it.”


May & June 2021


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