RANGE REVIEW: FLOORING & FLOORCARE
James says: “We don’t get taught how to run a company at school. If you go and do business studies, you still aren’t taught how to run a business. You’re taught to be good employees but not how to be a business owner.
“I learnt how to understand the numbers, the profit, margins, tax, and I feel this has given us a massive advantage because I don’t think anyone in the flooring industry does what we do. It’s a lot of hard work and it’s a lot of time that most people don’t want to invest in, but it’s worked for us.”
The Walton Flooring Centre team celebrates the firm’s win as Retailer of the Year at the Knowsley Business Awards
because the community had a carpet shop that had been there for over 35 years and everyone goes there, so, the first nine months were a really slow start for us” says James. It was a test of commitment for the team, and taking the difficulties in its stride, Walton Flooring was determined become a part of the community. In fact, it took something as low maintenance as offering car park spaces to the customers to eventually win over the sceptical people of Burscough. “We actually entered into every single community competition,” James laughs. “And, by doing that we made sure that they knew we wanted to be a part of it, we got involved in the community Facebook page and we listened to what they said. “There’s a car park at the back of the property which forever gets taken up and we never have car parking space for our customers, so we left two car parking spaces for them, and they were starting to see we were being more reasonable and really trying to be part of the community. I think people started trying us out a little bit then.” Once people began getting the taste of the Walton Flooring service, it seems they didn’t want to go back, and business began to pick up rapidly after that tentative start. James explains the difference between the long-standing carpet company in Burscough in comparison to Walton Flooring. He says: “It’s like chalk and cheese – you go in there cut the carpet up and probably throw it in the car yourself, and people over there have always done that and have done that for years; whereas you come to us, you get proper advice, proper
16 DIY WEEK 19 JANUARY 2018
service, after care calls, everything’s tidied and cleaned, you’re always kept in the loop and there is always a level of communication. I think, when word started traveling around there, it was getting us bigger and bigger, and that’s now our most profitable store.”
But James is under no illusion that the company is perfect and believes there is always room for improvement. He has a unique
benefit the business most.
“In September 2017 we opened our Moreton store, and we’ve been blown away by it; if I could scale Moreton and give you a year view, I would probably say Moreton is going to run away and be our biggest revenue store, and definitely our most profitable as well. We’ve always had a lot of work on the Wirral and we think that’s why this store has taken off in the way it
“I’ll turn up at the door with a flower bouquet and a bottle of wine or some beer for the fellas if they’re there, and we win those customers back if something goes wrong and 90% of the time when I go there and do that we win them back.”
method to win the customers back should any mishaps occur. “I’ll turn up at the door with a flower bouquet and a bottle of wine or some beer for the fellas if they’re there,” he explains. “We win those customers back if something goes wrong and 90% of the time, when I go there and do that, we win them back because we show the customer that we’re here and if you have a problem we will resolve it. That’s why customers feel they can rely on us.”
Targeting the right areas Walton Flooring Centre has grown exponentially since its very first store and it seems 2017 has really been the year that it has all come together for the flooring company. James describes the strategy he applies to help plan which regions to mark for expansion, and which areas would
has,” says James, with an element of pride coming through in his voice. “Matt, our marketing manager, he understands the way I like to work, I like to target areas where I’m looking to open. For example, we’re targeting Chester right now because I’m looking into opening a store there in March, we’re also looking at Warrington and Preston, and this will create brand awareness. People knew us in the Wirral because of the name.”
James found that, although his own dedication to his business and that of his father and employees was second-to-none, he only noticed real change that set them apart in the flooring industry when he hired a business coach back in January of last year, and he was able to separate being a model employee from being business savvy.
There’s no ‘i’ in team The company’s impressive growth strategy, presence and brand awareness is definitely a very inspiring tale, and James believes a lot of the success is down to the communication between the team and how well they work together. He says: “The team is perfect – we work together perfectly. And, again, that all comes from the way we work as a company. We call it the ‘Walton Flooring Way’ and it’s the way we want to work closely as a team. There’s always a hell of a lot of communication and, because of that, we have a 99% success rate, if not more.”
As a business owner, he also believes it’s important to share the success of the company with the team, showing them gratitude for the hard work they do, and giving them time off on the weekends, even though this isn’t the norm for most retailers. “Staff have Sundays off; we’re not open seven days a week – why should you be?” He asks. “You should have your Sundays off because Sunday is family day. Just because you’re in retail, that doesn’t mean you should be working every single weekend. This is the type of team culture we have, and we want to make sure that the staff are happy. We don’t do ridiculous hours and we can still get our business in.” Another way James has bonded with his staff is by having banter with them. As a 30-year-old man, he’s up for getting involved with the team in a light-hearted manner. “We all have a Whatsapp group.
We’re all involved with that, and we all have silly jokes,” he laughs. “We also have quite a lot of women working for us, which is quite a big advantage as a company because, in the flooring industry, it tends to be a male-dominant business but 30% of our staff are women. It’s down to organisation and finer detail. Diane in our Huyton store, for instance, she often has good ideas that she
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