Just over a year on from The M6 Bed Warehouse’s second store launch, we caught up with Louis Mitchell, Director, to find out how it has performed as the business celebrates its first anniversary at the location.
Back on 4th May 2024, Northwich welcomed The M6 Bed Warehouse into its retail community. Situated on Winnington Business Park, the Cheshire-based family-run bed and mattress retailer has recently celebrated a year at the site, and what a year it has been for the business.
“Reaching the one-year milestone is a proud moment for us – it feels fantastic,” says Louis. “We’ve worked hard as a team and seeing the support from the community has made it all worthwhile. The store has performed brilliantly, we’ve surpassed our targeted turnover figure by over 25%.
“It’s been a strong first year, and the positive response from customers has exceeded our expectations. The new team members (including sales, warehouse & delivery) have fitted in seamlessly and added real value to our business. At the NBF Bed Show 2024, we were finalists for the Small NBF Retail Champion of the Year – a great honour for our business and cements what we are building.”
The business has also been working alongside key suppliers to offer exclusive promotions to add extra value, which have been “extremely successful”, as Louis continues: “We’re seeing that size upgrades or extra storage offers are customer favourites as people look to get the best deal available. We’ve also seen a continued trend towards ottoman beds as customers look to maximize storage space; while so much choice in fabric & headboard designs allows them to customise to their individual taste, increasing the value proposition for the end consumer.
“Our free delivery and free recycling service is fantastic too as more and more people are concerned about the mattresses’ ‘end-of-life’ process and our commitment to being zero-to-landfill is really valued by our customers.”
Another key area the business has focused on is enhancing the customer in-store experience, as Louis explains: “We’ve noticed that customers are really valuing expert advice and the in-store experience more than ever. They want to see, feel, and understand what they’re buying. We’ve really focused on continual development through formal and informal training sessions including visiting factories, in-store supplier training sessions and role-playing scenarios to ensure our team are ready to assist with any customer request.
“Speed of delivery is also a big factor, so we’ve committed to keeping strong stock levels of our best-selling lines to ensure fast, reliable delivery.”
On the note of delivery, the business has ramped up its logistics processes, introducing a new route optimisation software to fuel efficiency and meet demands of its growing team. This also gives customers real-time updates and helps improve communication across its teams, leading to a greater customer experience.
“It’s a new investment, so we’re still in the process of implementing it,” Louis explains. “The efficiency increases we’re expecting to see are: less time route planning, reducing unnecessary miles/cost and greater visibility for the customer with live updates and dynamic timings, so ETA’s are as accurate as possible.
“We expect this to be a game changer for our delivery and warehousing teams as this will allow us to be more streamlined and give them time back for more value adding tasks. Of course, implementing new processes will be challenging, so we’ve dedicated specific training blocks for all team members to ensure we maximise the effectiveness of the technology as soon as possible.”
Louis added that business so far this year has been “rewarding, exciting, and challenging”. Alongside its continued investments across the company, M6 Beds has forged community partnerships to build a stronger bond in the areas it serves. “We recently took part in the local Pokémon hunt, where businesses displayed stuffed Pokémon toys for the community to find and photograph around town. It’s been fantastic to be involved in the local community and we loved having Snorlax in our window, the perfect Pokémon for a bed shop!
“We’ve also donated £20k to a local cricket club for a new all-weather 2-bay training facility. This was needed by the club as a drive to get more people into the game and has allowed us to give back to a community who has supported us so well.
“Business this year has been rewarding, exciting, and definitely challenging; particularly during the sunny April weather. However, it gave us a great opportunity to focus on enhancing the in-store experience and finding fresh ways to attract customers into the showroom. We’re optimistic for another great year across the business and enjoyed celebrating our anniversary milestone of our second store in Northwich. Here’s to another successful year!”
