talking shop
Louis Potts celebrates golden anniversary
Specialist tableware retailer Louis Potts of Lewes in East Sussex is celebrating 50 years of trading. Co-director Ella Clarke charts the changes of the past five decades
realised that her shift patterns would allow her to take Friday and Saturday off – Portobello Road Market days. Helped by her boyfriend Andrew (now her husband and my father), they began trading - two young hippie innocents selling Staffordshire seconds. Trade grew and they opened their first shop at the seaside resort of Brighton in East Sussex in 1970. A branch at nearby Lewes in East Sussex followed in 1976. Two years later, they opened a third branch of Louis Potts at Horsham in West Sussex. All stock was collected weekly from the Stoke potteries and wholesalers – meaning that they were buying at much better prices than their traditional, specialist china shop competitors. My parents rode the 1990s recession by cutting back to the Lewes shop, making life a lot simpler – but not for very long! In 1996, my big sister (and now co-director)
I
Jennifer, built and launched our first website. She was in her final year at Warwick University, with a geeky boyfriend at the time who was fascinated by the potential of the web. They concentrated on the major British
brands then selling in the USA and, by selling at 34 |
housewareslive.net
n 1969, my mother Patricia was working as a librarian in London’s Notting Hill and living close to Portobello Road. She
UK RRP, they were undercutting the American stores by 50%. The website took off like a demon! Our website was one of the first in our industry and is now on its fourth incarnation. Jennifer left teaching for Louis Potts in 2001, and I left my career in sales and marketing within the vehicle leasing sector to join her in 2010 - a slight change! My role is to ensure that our online orders are
processed efficiently and sent back to our warehouse for packing and dispatch. I also deal with ordering from the manufacturers, accounts and generally, everything (!). Jennifer is the creative one who decides what we should be ordering for our shop customers. She, along with her partner Ronald, built - and continually develop - our wonderful website at
www.louispotts.com. So how has Louis
Potts changed over 50 years? Obviously, by far the biggest change is the sales from our website, which now average 60% of
•
HousewaresLive.net •
twitter.com/Housewaresnews July/August 2019
turnover. At the same time, huge changes have
occurred in our stockholding over the past 10 years. Our traditional upmarket tableware offering has virtually disappeared. Once, Wedgwood products were consistently 20% of turnover, with other old favourites such as Royal Doulton and Villeroy & Boch also making a useful contribution. These names, along with many others, have disappeared from our shelves and website - and, rather strangely, they don’t seem to be missed! Casual tableware now rules, with mixed, organic colours topping our sales. White bone
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
