HOME IS WHERE THE HARTY IS

CARA HARTY recently bought longestablished dealer Thombequ back into the ownership of the founding family – and is now looking to build on its long history in Central Scotland

ara Harty is in an unusual C situation; while she recently brought longestablished family dealer Thombequ back into the ownership of her family, it is her first experience of being the owner and making all the decisions. So, while the business has been in Central Scotland for more than 40 years, in some ways it feels like she is starting from scratch.

It has been a period of change for Thombequ. Rewind to November 2020 and Sandy Thomson, Cara’s father, who had established Thombequ in 1978 with his wife – and Cara’s mother – Irene, and ran it ever since, took the opportunity to sell up to another local business and take a well-earned retirement. Cara took over the running of Thombequ as an employee of the new owners. While the deal, on paper, had looked like a good fit at the time, in practice, it didn’t turn out that way. “The businesses were just too different,” says Cara. It was a mutual decision for Cara to take back the Thombequ business, and this was completed on February 1 this year. “It was an amicable decision on both sides, and we continue to have a strong working relationship,” she says.

Now Cara is focusing on growing Thombequ’s sales base back up to, and beyond, its pre-COVID levels. “It’s an exciting prospect that I can take it forward, and do what I want to do,” she says. “At the moment it’s more about post-COVID recovery and re-establishing the business - it’s early days.

“While Thombequ is an established company, it’s the first time I’ve owned it so, in that respect, it is new. For now, it is about getting back in touch with customers we’ve not heard from for a little while and reassuring them that nothing is going to change again; we are back, and building the company up again.”

You just get your hands dirty and do everything

KEEPING IT LOCAL

News that Cara has taken over has been welcomed by the local business community. “We’ve had customers come back who had stopped buying from us,” she says. “They had gone to find cheaper prices but have now come back to Thombequ as they want to support me and the local economy.”

Cara points to how, being a small company, Thombequ can be more responsive than some of the larger, national companies. “It can be annoying when you have to contact people two or three times for an answer for something that could easily have been sorted out by one person,” she says. “For us, if a customer is local to us, the chances are we would jump in the car and go and sort out any issue face-to-face - not that we often have issues but, when we do, we get them sorted out quickly.”

The personal touch is something Cara is keen to foster within the business, it being something she learned from her parents. She says he knew the value of relationships – indeed, Thombequ has been providing services to some businesses for the entire 43 years of its existence. For instance, during the days of the pandemic lockdowns, Cara appreciated how difficult it was for some

customers, especially those who lived alone.

“There were a few customers that ,when they ‘phoned through their order, you took that extra bit of time with them because you knew they were in the house on their own and you could tell they just needed someone to talk to, so you had that extra chat with them,” she says. “That was important, just to make sure they were ok.”

GROWING UP IN THE BUSINESS

Cara learnt a lot from her parents, having been around the business for as long as she can remember – indeed, there are Thombequ customers who remember her being born! “I remember going to trade shows when I was younger. I would go round with a bag collecting samples so that my friends and I could test them out at school the next day,” she laughs.

However, she didn’t join the business formally until 2006, after completing her Master’s at the University of St Andrew’s. Like many family-run businesses, over the years Cara has taken on most positions - from making deliveries to running the accounts - gradually taking on more responsibility. “It’s a typical, family-run business; you just get your hands dirty and do everything.”

Now she has plans to expand what the company does with ambitions, in time, to expand product offerings around office furniture, especially as businesses in Scotland gradually return to face-toface working and many are looking to revamp or refresh their physical spaces to accommodate new ways of working.

Whatever Cara does, family will be at the heart of it. Sandy, while enjoying his retirement, helps out occasionally with deliveries – much to the delight of longstanding customers who enjoy the chance to catch up with him – and there is a potential third generation coming up - Cara’s children, currently aged six and two. “I’m doing all this for them,” she says. “I did wonder whether I would have the time to take on the business, but it’s a family thing and I couldn’t turn it down.

“Whether the children take it over, I don’t know, but it would be nice if they did.”

It’s a family thing and I couldn’t turn it down