Member Article

Blueprint North East store paves the way for 20 more outlets in 2022

A flooring retailer has hailed the success of its ‘blueprint’ store in the North-East of England as being the key to its rapid national expansion, with 20 more stores planned for 2022.

Flooring Superstore now has 42 stores across the UK.

This comes only five years since the County Durham headquartered retailer opened its first store in Birtley, having previously been purely an e-commerce retailer.

This store continues to be one of the most successful in the group, accounting for over £1 million in sales in 2021, and with 76% of customers who visited the outlet on the Portobello Trade Park during the year buying flooring products.

Flooring Superstore Northern Regional Manager Greig Anderson said: “Since opening its doors in 2017, our Birtley store has gone from strength to strength, seeing year on year increases to turnover and visitors.

“Being our first store, the Birtley team have laid down a fantastic blueprint for our other locations around the country.

“This is down to having a passionate team, committed to building fantastic relationships with residential customers as well as local tradespeople and businesses. Their dedication to providing every visitor with a truly great shopping experience is reflected in the store’s success and it’s something we now repeat in every store we open.”

In addition to the investment in stores, Flooring Superstore gave away £200,000 in promotional discounts during 2021, as well donating tens of thousands of pounds worth of flooring to charities and organisations in the areas where it has stores.

At Birtley, this has included providing flooring for a sensory room for the Dementia Matters charity in Cramlington, and the Wetheriggs Animal Rescue Centre near Barnard Castle.

Greig added: “As a growing national retailer we are acutely aware of our corporate social responsibility and the impact we have on the environment through our operations.

“That’s why we support so many charities and organisations in the areas where we have a store presence whilst also planting over five million trees, removing one million plastic bottles from the oceans/seas and protecting over 29,000 acres of rainforest.

“For example, for every order we receive in any of our stores we plant one tree. It’s small steps like this that we believe make a massive difference.”

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