April 2022
ertonline.co.uk
11 L-R: Sean Hannam, Paul Mead, Martin Jukes, Paul Giles
Retail panel, chaired by Sean Hannam, Editor of Retra Alert magazine
Panelists:
• Paul Mead, Principal, Michael R Peters • Martin Jukes, Head of Retail, Avensys • Paul Giles, Managing Director, Snellings
Q&A
Q: Selling kitchens is a massive new opportunity for retailers now. What has been your experiencing moving into this area? Paul Giles:We’ve been selling kitchens for about four years and we have a really close relationship with our supplier, and they’re relatively local which means we can hold stock a bit more. But the big thing we’ve learned is that you need
professional project management as you’re going through the stages of fitting. It might seem like an easy sell, but it really is quite full on and you have to remember that you’re taking someone’s home apart. It’s not just a dishwasher installation – this is a completely new level so you have to know exactly what you’re doing across all projects from start to finish. Martin Jukes: We teamed up with Symphony when we moved into kitchens and we’ve got great ties with local architects and designers; we also employed a fledgling designer straight out of university to have someone in-house to learn from the ground up, and that’s been a huge benefit so I would recommend keeping some or all of your services in-house.
Q: The ‘road to net zero’ is a hot topic for both retailers and brands. Is it something you are taking on board? Paul Mead: We went to change our delivery vans last year and we looked at electric vans but financially it did not stack up so we had to opt for diesel. That said, we are very conscious and we have started to make changes across the business. MJ: Avensys has got electric car charging points outside the store and we’ve got solar panels on the roof – we did that a few years ago and it was probably one of the best things we’ve ever done. We also now recycle 75 per cent of our packaging, so as the online side of the business has grown it has enabled us to reuse a lot of packaging. Something I find interesting is that customers
are still very confused over the new energy labelling. But thankfully for us that provokes a discussion instore and we then have the opportunity to convert that into a sale. PG: We have just had quotes to install solar panels at our showrooms, and perhaps if we had done this earlier we would be seeing the return already. It is surprising how much electricity we’re using running all of our TV screens across our stores. We also considered changing our fleet of vans
but the mileage claims on electric vans weren’t working out; we’re in quite a rural area and we can’t have delivery vans running out of charge during the day. It requires a lot of time and money to start implementing these kind of changes.
Q: Manufacturers selling direct is always a contentious issue. What are your thoughts about it? PM: My view is that manufacturers should manufacture and retailers should retail – but I’m not naive enough to see the direction of some of
the manufacturers. What I’m really pleading for is that they take us on their journey, they don’t just set up their own direct selling routes and Internet sites and ignore the might of the buying groups. As independent retailers we are solution providers and we should be seen as an essential part of the chain. Dyson is a prime example of where retailers
helped to build that brand and now they’re encouraging everyone to buy direct from the people who made it! MJ: It needs to be a level playing field. If a manufacturer offers something online we should be able to offer it in the same way, but then also still have a displaying discount because we are putting on a show for the customers and allowing them to touch and feel and experience the product instore before buying it. Like most independents, we’ve been busier
than ever so there’s definitely a willingness to buy from us and sometimes people will pay a premium to shop with their local, friendly business. PG: Suppliers undercutting us online is totally out of order. Whatever offers they are doing they are getting the retail margin – and that’s not their margin to claim. It’s certainly a thorny issues. How can someone spend big money on
something if they have not seen it in person? So I think if brands want to use our showrooms to display product and want us on the front line with customers then we need to work together; we need to draw the line and stick to it. Retailers are end-to-end and we can provide the
whole package; we need to push that message onto consumers and then the manufacturers might withdraw a little.
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