News» New Arrivals of Stock from Europe Oct/November 2013
Travelling around Europe, buying furniture and bringing it into the UK, sounds like great fun and I have to admit at times it is not a bad way to make a living. It‘s not all as easy or straightforward as it seems though evidently many think it is! At least this is the impression I get from some of the comments received.
Often I am asked if I drive over in a van and "pick things up" - whilst I may have done this from time to time such vaunts can only really be described as a 'reccy'. The only way to make the margins work is to buy a lot of things and to cram as big a lorry as you can. Of course this requires huge funds, the ability to find enough pieces, the facility to handle that amount of stuff when it gets here and of course finally enough people to buy it!
Somebody else once asked me if i put in an order to some dealer over the phone and they fill a van for me! Really! I do remember a dealer who tried that once, he brought a largish lorry in from Romania and i was there at a market when he opened up the load, and what a lot of dust and rotten furniture it was! He must have made somebody very happy and cleared a nice bit of space in their store for them! Of course in those days 15 years ago the prices were so good in the east of Europe (unlike now) that is was believed that you could not go wrong.
The fact is nowadays that is that it is quite a challenging enterprise, strict quality control in the buying and a good bit of thought to stock management is important – and there are other tips which I won’t disclose right now!
What we try to do is to always have certain types of item that we are known for in stock...plenty of benches, chests and tables of all sizes from side to coffee table to dining table...that way if someone wants something or a trade buyer wants to re-stock certain items for the next three months then a call or a visit is likely to bear fruit and they don’t need to search elsewhere.
We don't want to change the smart look of the site by putting too much unrestored stock on it but we do have more.
So don't just go on the website selection, remember that we have plenty of pieces being restored, waiting to be restored and on their way and the majority of our sales never appear on the site.