September 2026 ertonline.co.uk


Cooper & Elm recently acquired A.E. Wallis in Heacham, 12 miles from its King’s Lynn store. Pictured right, from top: the newly acquired store and its showroom.


The former owners had decided to retire, with


A.E. Wallis ceasing trading on 31 May and the store reopening under the Cooper & Elms name the following day.


While Cooper & Elms can boast more than four decades in business, A.E. Wallis went back even further. Established in 1939, it had been run as a second-generation family business and had served the area for 87 years.


Mr Cooper had been considering expansion


for some time, but previous opportunities had never quite been right. “I’ve been looking to expand,” he says. “Over the last 10 years there have been various possibilities, but this one just felt right. “The economic climate


ideal, but it’s a good business and it sits nicely alongside us.”


It was not a case of buying an unknown competitor either. Mr Cooper had known the previous owners for years and the two retailers regularly helped each other, whether that meant sending a customer down the road or checking if the other had stock available. “There’s a natural overlap,” Mr Cooper explains. “We’re only about 12 miles apart. We did some business out that way and he did some business this way, but we weren’t on each other’s doorsteps.”


Mr Cooper is conscious that taking over a business with such a long history needs to be handled carefully. “We’re just doing small tweaks to make it our business,” he says. “We don’t want to do anything too drastic too soon and upset the customer base over there. It’s about bringing it in line with how we operate.”


Some of the history of A.E. Wallis will remain on show, including old radios, televisions and other memorabilia accumulated over the years. More importantly for people living locally, the shop itself has survived. “We’ve had a very warm welcome from people in Heacham and the surrounding areas,” Mr Cooper says. “Even people who haven’t gone in to purchase anything have been glad the shop is remaining and that we’re going to be there.


“I think there was a real fear that it was going to close.” There was always a question over whether


is probably not


customers loyal to A.E. Wallis would continue shopping there after the change, but the early signs have been encouraging. “Touch wood, in the first month they seem to be supporting us, which is very pleasing.”


Different by a dozen miles The acquisition has also given Cooper & Elms more space to work with. Mr Cooper describes the King’s Lynn shop as a compact showroom, whereas the Heacham property comprises four units. Three currently make up the electrical operation, while the fourth, previously a bike shop, is being used for storage. “There is scope to possibly expand the


showroom over there as well,” Mr Cooper says. That is for further down the line. The priority is getting Heacham established and learning how the two locations work alongside each other. Despite being only 12 miles apart, there are


already noticeable differences. SEBO is one example.


“I struggled to sell SEBO in King’s Lynn,” Mr


Cooper says. “I don’t know why. We did the odd one or two, but over there they told me they do quite a bit of SEBO.” Another Euronics retailer with experience of running two shops had warned him this might happen.


“He said, ‘You’d be surprised how different two shops can be being so close together.’” It means Mr Cooper cannot simply replicate the


King’s Lynn product mix in Heacham and assume customers will behave in exactly the same way. The team now numbers eight across the


two branches, with staff able to move between them when required. A cloud-based telephone system is also being introduced, allowing calls to divert to the other shop if somebody is unable to answer.


That flexibility is useful in a small business where job descriptions are not always rigid. >>


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