Chris O’Brien, Director of independent furniture retailer Ashbrooks, talks about recent investments, a customer focus on colour and texture, import challenges and too much product choice.
Meet Chris
I’m the Director of Ashbrooks. We’re based in Sale, Manchester, and have been established since 1889. We are coming in to our 138th year of continuous trading (through five generations of the same family) and I oversee the daily running of the business as well as steering the company towards our next phase of growth.
Recent investments?
We’ve recently installed a brand-new shop front, a new thermal insulating roof and revamped of our flooring showroom. We’re also consistently maintaining the building to a high and welcoming standard for customers, as well as installing a new lighting and heating system throughout the showroom and upgrading our exterior shop signage.
Future plans?
Continue to be a profitable business in a very testing climate within the industry. Looking at new ranges to keep us current, and continuing to offer a decent product offering to our customers.
What is your mission?
To continue building on our enviable reputation being a family run, independent business for the last 137 years. Offering a high level of service and quality to our customer base.
On sustainability, what is your business doing on this topic?
We have recently installed energy efficient lighting panels throughout the entire showroom and energy efficient heating throughout the showroom too, replacing older ineffective storage heaters.
We ensure waste is kept to a minimum and disposed of as environmentally friendly way as possible. We are looking to upgrade our delivery van to a full electric/hybrid model when due for renewal and we have also recently installed energy efficient LED shop signage.
How has recent business been? What trends are you noticing?
Within the last few years, we have seen year on year sales growth, which seems to be ‘bucking’ the trend somewhat. We have seen a gradual decline in footfall in recent times but the average sales order values remain high which is encouraging.
We do generally see a lot of repeat custom which proves we continue to offer our customers good levels of choice, value and a high level of service but it is still lovely to see new faces and hopefully the next generation of a loyal customer base.
In terms of trends, we are seeing customers paying a high attention to colour and texture trends and looking to make their selections very bespoke to their home/rooms they are looking to revamp.
What would you change in the industry?
This seems like an odd response, but there is so much choice from suppliers in terms of colours, coverings etc. that it can sometimes be overwhelming and far too much choice when presenting options to a customer.
Maybe a little less choice would lead to manufacturers being able to offer a more competitive price as they would not require stocking so many different types of fabrics, and a cost saving they could maybe pass on to retailers?
What challenges do you currently face and how are you overcoming these?
Ever increasing costs are a challenge and one that has to be monitored closely, making sure our prices remain competitive. We are also careful at what stock we choose to showcase, striking the balance between good value and an offering that still engages with customers.
Further to this we see an increase on the companies that we deal with that import products, imposing very high minimum order values to qualify for free delivery with the alternative being a hefty delivery surcharge for items to be delivered, which ultimately comes in to our thinking when selecting ranges to stock, to remain competitive.
Do you have any staff you would like to pay special thanks or recognition to and why?
We have had some members of staff that are approaching nearly 35 years in the business, which I’m sure is rare these days. Their loyalty is fantastic and we would like to pay special thanks to those members of staff but in truth we value all our staff as they all contribute to the successful running of the business.
Why do you think customers choose your business?
The fact we have been family run since the start of the business and has always been run on a sound footing, I think there is a lot of trust and confidence when making a purchase from ourselves.
