Our just finalised annual accounts show that Archers Sleepcentre have sold more beds in 2012 than ever before. However that bald fact is just half the story. The other half is Archers Sleepcentre also made the smallest profit ever. So if I was a bed customer, I would be happy. As the owner of a barely profitable bed shop, I am less enamoured.

But “survival is the new success”, so the Kaymed Beds MD tells me. And a profit is better than a loss. Bah humbug I say! Working this hard is just plain hard.

Anyhow with the backdrop of Dreams Beds going into administration I am trying (more…)

Our Archers Sleepcentre internet sales team hasn’t broken their weekly bed sales record since 12 November 2011. Beginning to feel we had lost our touch. But a new record was set 2 weeks ago and by midnight tonight we’ll have an even higher sales record. Just in time for the Olympics.

This is of course the time for the Glasgow Groundhog to pronounce how we are going to do for the next 6 months. Scottish school holidays are coming to an end. Sales will start to soar from now to November. And for the last 5 years I have said to myself “…that’s the recession over, now back to business.”

Alas every morning I wake up to the same stark fact: the great British  (more…)

Next to the bed company with no name and we never mention (begins with ‘H’ and ends in ‘E’), Kaymed Beds is one of my all time favourite brands.

And yesterday, as I held my Scottish Furniture Trade Benevolent Association (SFTBA) golf prize in hand, a Guinness coffee mug, donated by Kaymed, I thought, “What would I prefer: a pint of Guinness or a good night’s sleep on a Kaymed?”

Alas, many a pint of Guinness have I had, but not yet have I slept on a Kaymed. One day. Post recession, 2025. It’s on my bucket list.

Anyhow, yesterday’s SFTBA Golf outing at Deer Park, Livingston was a resounding success. Our team did struggle, despite having Stuart Gilchrist, our Birlea Beds ringer, who plays golf every week, and has a driver the cost of a small (more…)