Member Article

£20,000 investment made in North East flooring store

A flooring company has invested £20,000 expanding the ranges at its first-ever store in the North East.

After the success of its online business, Connection Flooring opened its first physical store in Birtley in February 2017.

Since then, it has opened another nine stores across the UK and now it has returned to Birtley to add a third brand, Flooring Superstore, to the 6,000 square foot store on the Portobello Trade Park.

This means it can now offer shoppers and trade customers carpets and vinyl flooring, in addition to the existing range offered by its Direct Wood Flooring and Grass Direct brands.

Peter Docherty, Manager of the Birtley store, said: “Flooring Superstore started life as a purely online business, but due to growth we decided to launch physical stores, so it’s great that we can now also offer this brand at Birtley.

“The store has been very successful since opening, so by adding carpet and vinyl, people can now view and buy all the flooring they need under one roof, instead of having to go to multiple places to do this.

“This is important because householders are now likely to have a range of flooring options in their home, whether it’s wood flooring in their living room, vinyl flooring in their kitchen, carpets in their bedroom or artificial grass in their garden.”

Connection Retail has a current annual turnover of £28 million, and this is predicted to rise to £35 million next year, reflecting the company’s investment in ‘bricks and mortar’ stores.

Connection Retail Managing Director Dan Foskett said: “We have experienced outstanding growth over the past 12 months and this has been reflected in the opening of brand new stores in areas such as Edinburgh, Swindon, Newport and York in 2018.

“But we have also been returning to stores that initially only had the Direct Wood Flooring and Grass Direct brands to introduce Flooring Superstore too.

“We are therefore delighted to have been able to invest £20,000 in further enhancing our first-ever store in Birtley.

“It’s an exciting time for the company as we shift from being purely e-commerce to building our physical presence throughout the rest of 2018 and beyond and becoming a leading player in the retail flooring industry.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Neil Shaefer .