Marshall’s has been selling flooring, then furniture and then beds in Worthing, West Sussex since 1991, when Norman Marshall bought his own store after working for a multiple and joint-ventures.
What began as a former bank has grown as neighbouring properties were acquired. And competition is right next door.
‘We started with just this small shop here (what forms the second of the store’s spaces). It used to be Lloyds Bank, and we still have the safe in there, and the walk-in strongroom. We started with virtually nothing, just a few samples and a few remnants. With good customer service and good deals, and the reason that local competition couldn’t do a lot of business with every supplier, we increased our offer and then joined SMG so I could get access to pretty much anything I want,’ says Marshall.
‘The shop next door became empty and that’s when we went from strength to strength as we could stock roll carpet. Suddenly reps were interested if I wanted to buy six rolls. We had a very good relationship with the Lano rep and that made us even stronger, and other big Belgian manufacturers. Vinyl was really good – we’ve still got some down from 30 year ago. If you bought rolls supplying us with rolls, rebranded under the SMG label (something long replaced with Cormar POS). The shop on the other side – a pharmacists – came up so I bought that, which now has the LVT showroom in. And at virtually the same time the shop on the other side came up – which freaked me out a bit, so I thought I’d better have that. As there is a flooring store next door I didn’t want to put flooring into it, so that’s how the
beds story started.
‘Due to the Internet and how retailing has changed, the furniture side dropped off. It wasn’t anything to do with price – we kept an eye on prices – it’s the whole way people buy things that has changed. People would come to look, but say we’ll think about it and two weeks later buy it online at 9pm from a retailer in Scotland for the same price or possibly £100 more because they couldn’t be bothered to come out the house again. So, three years ago we put in the LVT showroom with the premium carpets and mainly man-made in the others which has worked really well.
‘All the buildings are Victorian, and there were alleys between them so we’ve had to do a lot of work expanding them including adding the warehousing.’
The day to day management of the store is handled by Dan Kelly, Matt Foan and Jason Beck.
Marshall’s route into flooring came via a dislike of early mornings. His father was a greengrocer in Bognor, so trips to a London market meant a 1.30am start. ‘I got really fed up what that, two or three days a week you were getting up at 1.30am and you had to start at 7am anyway even if you weren’t going to the market, and you’d go to nightclubs and fall asleep: it wasn’t a job for a young person unless you didn’t want to go out, and I got quite fed up with it. My dad died when I was young and I had a neighbour who became a senior
manager at Harris Carpets, he was like my dad. When I was 18 I went and saw him and said “Do you think I’d be any good selling carpets?” He said only if there is a job available – and there was at Commercial Road, Portsmouth. This was really exciting for me as there was lots going on. Basically, I’m a Londoner, I was born in London and I like the vibrancy of London, Portsmouth and Brighton.’
Marshall moved to other stores, becoming assistant manager at 20 and manager at 21, but being ‘a workaholic wanting to be busy, busy, busy’ left to set up on his own two years later.
A four-store chain in the south of England was the result, which he later sold to his business partner. A year in financial services – ‘which bored me senseless’ – saw a return to Commercial Road selling remnants and low-cost carpets (selling samples as doormats was the top-seller). Lloyds Bank’s closures included Bognor, which he missed out on and the estate agent offered him the Worthing branch – in the same street his father had previously had a store. Some things are meant to be.
‘We’ve built the business on customer service. A lot of our customers are three or four generations that come here as we looked after the first generation. It’s almost like a family. People knew if they came to us, they would get the right price and the service. Now getting service is very difficult: I’m trying get things done like a fire alarm or new shop front and you have to ring them for the price. We pride ourselves that generally we’ll provide the quote, written out properly, in 48 hours. One of the most important things is to not think is any customer is not good enough or not going to spend enough. I want them to spend £60 a sqm, £100 would be better but if they only have £8 I don’t want to send them out without selling them something. We’ve just put some cheap carpets in. Everybody is just as important and we try to cover the whole range.’
Average sales tend to be between £20-£40 per sqm, with 80% of customers being in a 15mile radius. Despite having a flooring store next door, Marshall says it is rare that shoppers do price comparisons – the two are in different buying groups: ‘We promote the actual real name as we sell it for a really good price.’
On beds, Marshall’s concentrates on Dura Beds and Vogue Beds. ‘We concentrate on value for money. Our beds are not expensive. Our dearest bed is probably £2,000. That same bed would be priced elsewhere in the town at £3,000.’
The focus on service and value across the interiors sectors has delivered, and given Marshall less very early wake-ups.