5 minute read
SHOWROOM BRINGS SUCCESS FOR CHRISBEON
Chrisbeon has been a stalwart name in office supplies in Shropshire for nearly half a century and, with its mix of new and pre-loved stock, it looks set to continue for many years to come
F
or more than 32 years Richard Hughes has done almost every job going at Telfordbased Chrisbeon – from making deliveries, to stocking the warehouse, to running the business – so, when the pandemic hit, he was more than able to muck-in during the lockdowns.
“During the first lockdown I was a delivery driver again for a couple of months,” he says. “My son works for us and is out on deliveries every day; as he still lives at home, me and him ended up doing deliveries together as we could both go out in the van. I loved it – it keeps your hand in, and you get to know how long it takes to deliver things or assemble furniture – things you can forget when you’re sat in the office all day.”
As well as gaining a fresh perspective on how aspects of the business run, Richard used the quiet times created by the lockdowns as an opportunity to make some improvements to the business such as installing a new ‘phone system – which helped staff work from home – and switching to a cloud-based server rather than a physical one in the office.
STOCKING UP
The team also used the time to reconfigure Chrisbeon’s warehouse and add some additional racking, a decision that is paying
dividends now. “At one time holding lots of stock wasn’t quite so important as the manufacturers and importers were bringing their lead times down and you could get products within a few days,” he says. “But now, with all the shipping problems and containers having become expensive to ship into the UK, there are long lead times on things, so we are trying to have desks and chairs in stock. If we haven’t got exactly what a customer wants, we have a range of other options. It’s working well
– if we’ve got it, we can sell it.”
Having a well-stocked warehouse also helps to keep Chrisbeon’s showroom full of products too. This has been shut for large parts of the past 18 months but it’s now open again, and customers are returning in good numbers, according to Richard.
“A lot of business customers are coming back with the normal enquiries we had before lockdown – stationery orders have picked back up again as people are back at work; they took a big hit when people were out of the office.”
The showroom is important to how Chrisbeon works and gains sales leads, Richard says. “On small orders, where customers want to pick up some stationery or the odd desk or chair, it is important for the showroom to be open to get those enquiries,” he says. “But some of those people who come in we can get talking to and it can lead to a salesperson going out to them and getting a bigger furniture renewal job. When it was shut, we weren’t getting those leads.”
FEEL THE LOVE
Chrisbeon doesn’t just deal in new furniture, it also sells a lot of used furniture too – what the company calls ‘pre-loved’ – in its showroom. The company sources its pre-loved stock through part exchange; when a customer orders new office furniture Chrisbeon will offer to take the old desks, chairs etc. in part exchange.
“It enables us to win a lot of new furniture projects,” Richard explains. “Where we might be up against someone else quoting for the job, we might be able to give the customer x amount back depending on what they are buying from us – and that means our new price is better than our competitor.
“Plus, it’s less hassle for the customer because they get rid of all their old furniture in one go to one person. We go in, take all the old furniture out and then go back and put the new in; it’s all managed by us.”
There is a large market for the pre-loved furniture too, and many people come to the showroom to view it, according to Richard. “We get quite a few people from start-ups; if they have a little office, and just want a couple of chairs, desks and filing cabinets, it’s perfect, as they haven’t got big set-up costs. We also have a lot of builders. If they are renting a portacabin for a site office for six-to-12 months while they build a housing estate, the builders don’t want to put new desks in, because it is on a dirty and dusty site; they’ll buy up a few desks and chairs, use it for the length of the contract, and either move it on somewhere else or dispose of it.”
Richard adds that it’s also good for companies that are environmentally aware – they can prove their furniture has been re-used rather than thrown in a skip.
FAMILY FEEL
The personal touch that the showroom enables Chrisbeon to give customers is also important to the company’s success over the years. A family business – Richard runs it with his brother Craig, who took over when their parents, who set the business up in the 1970s, retired – many of the staff have been with the company for more than 20 years too, which means they really get to know their customers, some of whom have been buying from Chrisbeon for just as long.
“That’s where we score over some of the bigger contract stationers in the industry,” says Richard. “We have the continuity. The customers know us, we know them, and we try not to let them down because we want them to come back again and again – a lot of our business is repeat business. Also, a lot of our business comes from word-ofmouth referrals.
“If you do a good job for one person, they tell others in the same market.”
