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needs to be done to make it work. Had I come in cold, I don’t think it would have worked.” “Without the experience I’ve been able to gain; the fact that I was working for independent companies that were still small enough to enable you to learn a little bit about the business; that experience has helped me and gave me confidence when I came here. It is also hugely about the staff that I’ve got because, when I took this business over, there were some staff that had been here since the late 1970s – really good and well- experienced staff. Unfortunately they were at a stage in their lives where they didn’t want to do more hours, so when I extended the hours, we had a restructure and they retired from the business. But, I did get a full year from those people and they were extremely helpful and did a really good handover to me. “I managed to go out and
acquire two members of staff, who previously worked for Wyevale garden centres and, between them, they are superb and could run the company without me. I have a good team, who are very knowledgeable
and strong, and that way we are able to give the level of service that is expected from this business.
A tight-knit community “I do think location is key as well,” he says. “We’re in quite an affluent area and have a brand-new road network being developed near us, which will take people from this village straight to B&Q.” But Nick says there are so many traffic lights between the village and the larger shops, the local people just can’t be bothered. He continues: “It’s to our advantage really that people just don’t want to travel – they have a limited amount of time in the weekend; why spend an hour of that time stuck in traffic, when you could go and shop locally?” The heritage weekend held by Blundell’s was a success, Nick says: “The manager [of the YMCA charity] was more than happy to get involved because it would help to drive footfall to the local charity shop and lots of people turned up! It was a crazy idea,” he laughs. “Graham, the founder’s son who sold me the business came as well,
he met people and spoke them about the good old days, and it was really very good. We then had a presence at both ends of the village, including directly opposite our competitor! While we had the exhibition up there, I bumped into him in the post office, and I had to reassure him that it was only temporary.”
When looking at the future of Blundell’s, Nick feels he is a custodian of the business. “My immediate plan is to modernise the business – I don’t want to go online. We’re a bricks-and-mortar shop – a face-to-face shop – and, if in the end the world decides it doesn’t want to shop, then that’s fine, we won’t be here, but as long as people want to shop, then I’m quite happy to be a shopkeeper,” he says.
“I had one foot in the past and eye on the future when I took over this business and we’re currently building a large extension on the side of the building, and now we’ll be focusing on becoming more efficient.” When asked why it is important to celebrate the history of a business, Nick answers thoughtfully: “It reminds people of who you are
and where you’ve come from, and, in my view, it’s secured the goodwill of the business because we have acknowledged where it has come from. I really encourage anyone who owns a hardware shop to hang on to as much of the history as possible. When you have time and the dust settles and you do something like this, it ensures continuity. I’d do it again, but I need a rest,” he chuckles.
www.diyweek.net
28 SEPTEMBER 2018 DIY WEEK 17
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