Julian Bowen Beds and Furniture
I have been writing cheques made out to Julian Bowen for beds and bedroom furniture since 1993. I did say to Julian this week. Will it ever end? Will he ever send me a cheque?
I can say Julian did buy dinner last week. And a great night was had too. JB may be 66 years old but he still operates at 100mph with fast cars, good living and a wee bit work in between. His stories are legendary. His opinions are legendary. His organisation is legendary. Julian, waist dimension apart, is my legendary role model.
So we were touring Britain, Donna, Robert and me. Looking for ideas and what best to do with our internet site. Which companies are addressing the new challenges and which companies are in tune with the new 21st century trading environment we call the world wide web?
Julian has always recognised that budget furniture deserves the same attention to detail as the most expensive. A drive to Dumfries to replace a Pickwick single pine bed side rail will definitely be a loss making exercise. And Julian’s designs are not just designed to a price. They are designed to work!
UK deliveries from Glasgow have raised the bar for Julian and all our other bed suppliers. Not just must Julian’s beds be well priced and well designed, but the quality and design of the packaging now needs the same attention to detail. If a replacement side rail from Glasgow to Dumfries is bad. One to Wookey Hole is a disaster.
Another new bar raiser is the increasing customer demand for choice and fast delivery. Not only does the customer expect to be able to buy a 4ft bed today, they want a fantastic choice. Companies such as Julian Bowen and direct home delivery have the answer.
It is heart warming to see the piles and piles of stock at Julian’s warehouse. Nothing annoys me more than for a wholesaler to charge me a wholesaler margin then quote me 6 weeks delivery. Having stock is what I’m paying for!
Fast delivery is of course another organisational challenge. We still meet suppliers who think that customers will wait a week. I imagine these suppliers grow their own food and darn their own socks too. How do you get a bed or a piece of furniture to a customer next day? Ideally in a lead lined coffin stacked full of visco elastic memory foam.
A happy compromise would be a great deal of bubble wrap and enough cardboard to keep a third world country in housing for the next century. In the end us retailers just monitor our returns and over time the bed suppliers who come up with the best packaging solutions will win this new way of doing business.
Many people have written off our Julian. But I have a feeling he may surprise a few folks very soon. Julian has the systems, he has the vision, he has the people. With my amateur wholesaler and distributor advice on fast delivery and packaging how can he go wrong? Looking forward to writing cheques made out to Julian for many years to come (sorry I meant BACS electronic transfers).
PS We had great fun testing Julian’s Riva Rise and Recliner chair. Amazing value and one of our top sellers.
Related posts:
Tags: Julian Bowen Beds, Julian Bowen Furniture
This entry was posted on Saturday, August 18th, 2012 at 11:51 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
