John Rastall, Head of Home at DFS, talks about continued investment for beds and mattresses instore, being a leader in sustainability, mattress recycling and adapting to market demands.
Meet John
I’m Head of Home at DFS. I joined the business in 2017 and work closely with our expert team of designers, buyers and suppliers, together with our trusted brand partners, to deliver our growing range of beds, mattresses, dining and homeware for DFS.
Recent investments?
When it comes to the home offering at DFS, we’ve made several key investments recently. We’ve implemented a new warehouse management system that enables quicker delivery of our beds and mattresses, and a broader offering of shorter lead products across beds, mattresses, dining and living room furniture. We’ve also created a dedicated customer services team for our home offering, to provide specialist support to customers who have ordered products from DFS’s home range.
Finally, we’ve refreshed our training programme for our retail teams – delivering bespoke training plans in store with trusted supplier partners and senior leadership, and adding dedicated training modules on our home offering to the induction plans for all retail colleagues.
Future plans?
At DFS, we have 115 stores across the UK and Ireland and over the past few years, we’ve continued to invest in these sites to deliver an inspiring, helpful and convenient shopping experience for our customers. Continued investment is planned for stores where beds and mattresses are on display. This includes the refreshing of our product assortment in 26 stores and – following a successful trial at our Beckton and Aintree stores – the rolling out of new home range display formats across 24 stores in our retail estate.
Of course, we also recognise that the online experience is incredibly important to our customers, and we continuously review our online offering to ensure that we are optimising the customer journey on site; effectively showcasing the fantastic range of home product we now offer at DFS; and that we’re providing the right guidance to the customer at the right time, to help them find the perfect pieces for their homes.
What is your mission?
Our mission is to be the leading furniture retailer in the UK and we see beds and mattresses as a significant growth opportunity to support our market-leading upholstery business. We have 55 years of experience in designing, manufacturing, selling and delivering furniture, a 36% market share in upholstery, and a broad customer base.
This strong foundation is bolstered by our highly skilled sourcing and buying teams, who remain responsive to customer needs and current trends; our industry leading marketing expertise and ‘What’s Your Thing’ creative brand platform, which is resonating well with customers; and our exclusive collections with much-loved brands. All of this, combined with the continuous optimisation of our web and logistics platforms, means that we are well-positioned to grow market share in the home segment.
On sustainability, what is your business doing on this topic?
As the largest upholstery business in the UK, we are conscious that we have the opportunity and the privilege to lead in many areas, including sustainability, and we want to bring great design, comfort and value into every home in an affordable, responsible and sustainable manner. Our Sustainable Sourcing Policy ensures greater transparency by requiring suppliers to provide certifications from recognised third-party service providers*, while our Science-based Net Zero strategy outlines our ambition and timeline to become a Net Zero business.
Specifically, within DFS Home, we have also increased the percentage of certified timber (FSC/PEFC) used in our supply chains to 83%; set a target for suppliers to provide plastic packaging with a minimum of 50% recycled content by 2026; and are working to ensure all ranges have zero polystyrene in packaging by December 2024. From a product perspective, we have also introduced multiple ranges from Jay-Be, who are an accredited Zero to Landfill manufacturer.
*All suppliers are required to provide the following certifications:
SMETA 4 pillar audit (a 2 pillar audit will be initially accepted, provided it is followed by 4 pillar on expiry) – also applies to sub-contractors in the supply chain
FSC – Timber chain of custody
PEFC – Timber chain of custody
OEKO-TEX (OEKO-TEX STEP) – Textile Mill Auditing
How has recent business been?
After a challenging summer period, we have seen an upturn in performance in recent weeks, with storage beds and mattresses showing strong year on year growth. Our quick delivery and express products are also proving popular.
What would you change in the industry?
One of the challenges that the furniture industry faces is reducing the number of mattresses that go to landfill and this is a key area of focus for me and the DFS Home team. We are a National Bed Federation Retail Champion and we are actively working with our supplier partners to support finding a solution to this industry-wide challenge, from developing new, innovative materials for use in manufacturing, to sourcing partners who can support in collecting and recycling used mattresses.
What challenges do you currently face and how are you overcoming these?
Like many other retailers, our key challenge is the weaker UK market place, with consumer confidence remaining challenging on bigger ticket purchases. However, we are confident that when the market does return, we are in a strong position, thanks to our continued improvements to operational efficiency across the Group and the strengthening of our offering over the last two years.
Do you have any staff you would like to pay special thanks or recognition to and why?
I’d like to say a huge thank you to our buying and merchandising team, who have transformed our DFS Home product offering over the last two years, through building strong relationships with our suppliers and taking inspiration from the latest interiors trends. We’re incredibly proud of our home offering and the high quality, trend-led pieces that are available to our customers at affordable prices, to complement our market-leading upholstery offer.
In addition to this, our Quality Assurance team has done an incredible job in working with our supplier partners to strengthen our product quality and have implemented a market-leading code of practice, which our suppliers are all working to.
Why do you think customers choose your business?
We’ve been designing, making, selling and delivering furniture for 55 years so we really are the experts – in fact, today around one in four homes has a DFS sofa!
Despite having been around for over five decades, we continue to innovate. We have our own design studio where our designers and buyers take inspiration from all over the world to bring the latest trends into new collections, and we have excellent relationships right across the business – from exclusive brand partners like Joules, House Beautiful, Country Living, Ted Baker and French Connection, through to the fantastic supplier base for our DFS Home offering. We work with leading brands such as Silentnight, Sealy, Sleepeezee and Harrison Spinks to bring a real breadth and depth of choice to our customers, together with outstanding comfort and quality, all with the expertise and convenience of DFS.
We’re also always looking for ways that we can enhance the customer’s experience so that they can get even more from their product – whether that’s with technology like surround sound, heated seats, charging points or inbuilt lighting; hidden storage to make spaces work even harder; or new brand partnerships so that customers can easily incorporate the style they love into their home interiors.
Our independent quality testing, DFS guarantees, and interest free credit options also mean that customers have peace of mind knowing that they can rely on us to deliver comfortable, high quality, stylish furniture, at an affordable price.
