RANGE REVIEW: FLOORING & FLOORCARE


FLOORING:


Walton Flooring Centre has gone from strength to strength since its humble beginnings as a small father-son carpet business in Liverpool, and has gone on to win two accolades for


Retailer of the Year in 2017. Kiran Grewal learns the secret of the retailer’s success.


ne casual conversation between a father and son led to the pivotal moment that created Walton


it would go any further,” James reminisces. “But, when we opened up Walton back in 2011, we saw results straight away!” At just 16 years old, James began


THE WALTON WAY O


At a glance Walton Flooring Centre


Flooring Centre. After realising his potential as a business manager at United Carpets, James Harper said to his dad, “would you like to set up a carpet company with me?” and, in six years, the company has now achieved a turnover of £2.5 million. “My dad was a brick layer at the time, and it was a difficult time for brick layers because of the recession, but I think we just thought it was going to be the one shop on the corner of the Queen’s Drive in Walton, we didn’t think


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a career in sales but, rather than adhering to the stereotype of a pushy salesperson, he decided he wanted to be an ‘information seller’ – and that was to give the customer all the correct information for them to be able to make the right choice for their needs and budget, something that he has implemented into the very core of Walton Flooring Centre, and one of the reasons he believes it has done so well. And, after the initial success of Walton, the company’s social media pages took off, with people beseeching for a store nearer to them.


“We had people saying ‘can’t you just come and open up somewhere in the south of Liverpool’, and this is where the idea came for Wavertree because people found it too far to travel up to Walton,” James explains. “So, as soon as we opened up there and put a bit of marketing out in the area, it became a real success, and I think that is where we’ve grown quite quickly from there on in.”


Rough beginnings It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Walton Flooring. A year-and- a-half after the second store was opened the team decided to open up in Burscough, and faced a lot of hostility in the beginning as the


Unit 10 Chapel Brook Trade Park, Wilson Road, Liverpool L36 6FH 0151 733 1514


enquiries@waltonflooringcentre.co.uk www.waltonfooringcentre.co.uk Established: Walton store in 2011 Selling space: 2,500 sq ft


Product offer: flooring solutions, commercial and domestic


Branches: Walton, Wavertree, Burscough, Huyton & Moreton Staff number: 18


Main suppliers: Abingdon, Regency, Carefree Carpets, and Victoria Carpets


community was tight-knit and had been stuck in its ways. “It was tough, I’ve got to say


to you that it was probably the toughest store we had ever opened,


19 JANUARY 2018 DIY WEEK 15


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