TILES & TILING
HOW TO GROW A MOUNTAIN
It’s been four years since a group of tiling retail experts with more than 100 years of collective industry experience got together to launch Tile Mountain, recently named the fastest-growing tile retailer in the country. DIY Week’s Jenny Wonnacott caught up with founding director Jeremy Harris to find out more...
“The best thing about owning your own business is the freedom of making your own decisions, but there’s also a lot of pressure!” – Jeremy Harris, Tile Mountain MD
Tile Mountain recently opened a new, £10million warehouse when it outgrew its old premises
T by
ake a group of experienced tile retailers with around 20 years of experience plug
apiece, a significant
gap in the tiling retail marketplace and it’s
easy to see why Tile Mountain is such a huge success story, having recently been named the fastest-growing online tile retailer in the industry.
The enterprise was first conceived founding members
Jeremy
Harris, former commercial director at Topps Tiles, and Mo Iqbal, who once owned Tile Giant. Since then, the company has seen 60% year- on-year growth for its first three
8 DIY WEEK 16 JUNE 2017
years and recently outgrew its premises in Stoke-on-Trent, leading to the development of a brand new, £10m purpose-built headquarters warehouse in Tunstall. Taking a look back at the business’ journey over the last four years, director
Jeremy Harris
Week: “We [the directors] all saw an opportunity to launch an online- based tile retailer – back then tile retailing was behind the curve with regards to online retailing so we saw a real gap in the market. Since then the business has grown and grown.” It’s not just a case of launching the right kind of company at the right time and filling that gap in the market. Tile Mountain’s success is also down
tells DIY
to the expertise of its founders. “We all have a huge amount of experience in this industry. We have all been working as tile retailers for over 20 years – we know how to run this type of business. We know what works and what doesn’t,” explains Mr Harris.
And, of course, it was the depth of this industry know-how that gave the directors the confidence to take up the opportunity of online tile retailing despite the traditional roots of the industry and disputes surrounding the viability of selling such important home décor products online.
“People always said that no one would buy tiles online – they like
to be able to see products like that in stores and make an informed decision before buying them,” says Mr Harris. “We offer up to three free samples and always prefer customers to take these before making an order, so that they can see how the products work in their homes. We also offer next-business-day delivery wherever possible, so there’s no waiting around for the tiles to arrive.” Besides the tremendous experience behind the business, what else does Tile Mountain attribute its growth to? “We are actively competitive with price,” explains Mr Harris. “We always make sure we are around half the price of our high street competitors and a lot cheaper than some of the market leaders. “Then there is good old-fashioned customer service. We have a team who speak to customers on the phone – when people shop online they still want the whole experience including advice and this is really important to us. Tile retailing can involve a lot of advice – which grout to use, which adhesives, colour choices, etc. We are passionate about being able to offer this service, even if it’s not face to face.”
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