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Behind the scenes at CDS Independence Centre

Diane Manuel, Director at CDS Independence Centre in Middlesbrough tells Bdaily about the challenges, achievements and focuses of the organisation.

What is your area of expertise?

Every day is different. Most days I am either dealing with customer sales and queries, or troubleshooting any problems that arise, as well as managing the office’s day-to-day business. I like to think that I can make a difference to someone who comes in to the showroom.

What key challenges has your company recently faced?

CDS has been trading for 20 years in the North East and nationally. We specialised in bathing facilities for the disabled. Arthur Barnes began the company in 1991 after realising that there was a gap in the market for level access showering facilities for the disabled.

As a company, CDS has dealt mainly with Local Authorities and Housing Associations, as well as Merchants and Builders who do the grant works. Over the last few years we noticed that our main customers (local authorities and housing associations) were spending less generally, which in turn meant that the merchants and builders were getting less work and spending less with us at CDS. This has had a big effect on our turnover.

What is your biggest achievement over the past 12 months?

Our biggest achievement is our new showroom and shop open to the public.

As a company we knew that we had to diversify to continue trading. We had always talked about opening a showroom to display our bathing products, but there was never the right time. Then a ready-made showroom became available behind our existing building so we took the plunge and moved in. There was a lot of work to be done to get the showroom to how we envisaged it, but on September 29th this year we had our open-day. We now have a large area for Mobility products, Stair-lifts, Beds and Kitchens. We also have a retail area selling Daily Living Aids and Continence Care. This is a whole new area of products for us all, but apparently you can teach an old dog new tricks. This is a natural progression for us to open a showroom and shop to the public, given our depth of expertise in the disabled bathing field. We now have one of the largest showrooms aimed at giving people independence in their home in the North East.

What is your biggest focus for the coming year?

Our biggest focus is to market our new venture in the North East and make a success of all the hard work that we have all put into it. We need people to know who we are and what we can offer. We want to become the place that everyone will come to, not only to purchase goods but for information and advice. We are also looking to use the space that we have for seminars on all aspects of disability. For example, we are holding a mobility product and legislation awareness day soon and a whale pump training day for fitters and local authority technical officers.

If you had to choose one top piece of advice for someone just starting out in business, or is currently operating within your industry sector, what would it be?

My advice would be to believe in yourself and your business or product and have a positive attitude. In the present financial climate it has been difficult to stay positive about our future, but we have all made the effort and I think it shows. Also, ‘service’ is one of the key elements in a business, whether it is on the telephone or in person. I insist on all the staff being efficient, courteous and respectful at all times. The old adage - the customer is always right (even if they are not!) - must prevail. I have kept my customers because of the service that they get from all of the staff.

Can you share with us your view of the current landscape of business, in this region or generally, and where your organisation sits within it?

We have been affected by local authority cutbacks, as have our installer customers, and it can only get worse, which is why we knew we had to diversify into the public market with the opening of the showroom and shop. We hope that this will open up new avenues of revenue and keep a 20 year-old business afloat. But we also know that some disability benefits are being cut too, so people do not have the finances either. We are a niche market but our prices must be competitive, coupled with service being as important as price. Like in any industry, we have to do more and appeal to more people in order for us to survive - which I think we have achieved.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jonny Marshall .