Will independent bathroom showrooms end up being replaced by ones set up and run by manufacturers? Tim Wallace talks to Tyrone Chesmin, store manager at West London bathroom specialist Edwins...

There's good news and bad when I arrive at Edwins, a clutch of neighbouring bathroom showrooms in Notting Hill, West London. On the plus side, store manager Tyrone Chesmin is pleased to report that business has improved significantly in the last six months. Until last June things were "bloody awful" he admits, but since then the 26-year-old company has enjoyed what he calls "exceptional months".

London factor or not, the news is encouraging for a company that splits its business 50/50 between private and contract work, turning over about £3 million a year. But on the downside, Chesmin shares the same concerns as every other high street independent at the moment, not only over the fragile economy, but over local stores that continue to undercut him.

There's the threat of the internet too of course, but there's also something else troubling him, and it's more to do with the general direction in which bathroom retail is heading. It won't be long, he insists, before the big bathroom manufacturers end up cutting out the independent retailer altogether and setting up their own stores instead. It's an interesting point, with Porcelanosa probably the only company which has so far done it with any success.

The strategy at Edwins is to offer an eclectic mix of products. There are no pigpen displays, just a wide variety of eye-catching products mixed and matched to appealing effect. This scattergun approach apparently works for the company's architect and designer clientele, although Chesmin does admit to one dedicated section set aside for Swedish manufacturer Svedbergs. My arrival has been timed to coincide with a visit from Svedbergs' business development manager Andrew Leask and it's interesting to hear the pair discuss Chesmin's fears that bathroom manufacturers may soon be cutting the retailer out of their plans...


Why do you fear for the survival of bathroom showrooms like this one?
Tyrone Chesmin: The problem is that this whole set up is going to totally change in the future. Bathroom shops like this won't exist in the way they do now. A supplier of bathroom products will be able to stock items a bit like Bathstore, and the majority of shops will go down that line. The individuality will go. We can't sustain it, it's all about pricing now. Distributors have already started doing it.

Q: But don't stores like this rely on offering better service?
TC: What we have here will be out priced. People will prefer something like a cash and carry, a Bathstore, where you can choose your products and off you go rather than talk it through with anyone. Most of our suppliers will deal with the public direct.
 
Q: Even though you're selling top end products?
TC: It won't take an awful lot for it to happen. Look at some of the really top end manufacturers; a lot of their products are coming from China, just like Bathstore. I can see suppliers cutting us out, setting up their own shops and selling direct.

Andrew Leask: Svedbergs has actually made a big effort to do the opposite and only deal direct with retailers. It gives us control over margins. We don't want to be talking to the end user, we don't have the time or the skill. We rely on people like Edwins, one of our flagship stores, to sell our products for us and that's very much the way we see the future and we wouldn't go down that route.

TC: But Svedbergs could employ people who are skilled from that end and set them up. One of the pitfalls for you is that you have a portfolio that in some respects isn't enough for everybody. But if you work hand-in hand with Hansgrohe, for example, it would work very well for you and I can see distributors and manufacturers going down that road and taking the bread from my mouth.

AL: But by opening up your own stores you'll almost immediately alienate all your retailers in terms of pricing. So if we open up one shop we'll have to open them up all over the country and give up on independent retailers. You'd have to take that decision very seriously. Like Porcelanosa who made the brave decision to open up stores across the country and I don't know how successful it's been?
 
TC: It can't be too bad. They keep opening massive showrooms and this is the way it will go. Look at people like Roca who are very big abroad but not very well known here, that's someone who might go down that route. It's a big investment but there are big returns if it goes right.

AL: But you'd have to say the retail side in the UK is relatively small anyway; the bulk of products are sold through merchants or DIY sheds. It's only about 10% through stores like this, so the likes of Roca will go for Travis Perkins etc.

Q: Aren't they diluting their brand by doing that?
AL: Yes, but can you rely on one part of the market when there's so much revenue to be had elsewhere?

Q: Are you getting the problem of customers researching products here then buying them on the internet?
TC: Strangely enough it's the reverse, they're doing their homework on the internet, then coming in and asking us if what they've chosen is right. Then it's all about fighting for price. There are major pitfalls but the one area that lets us down is that products are priced ridiculously. The only way you can stand out now is on price.
 
Q: How much of a worry is that to you?
TC: It is a worry, but the nice thing is that we tend to deal with suppliers where it's not so easy to buy off the internet. We need to take a step away from certain suppliers and offer things that aren't so easy to get on the internet. That's where Svedbergs come in who are monitoring it quite well.
 
Q: Have some manufacturers lost control of where their products are available?
TC: Yes, it can be ridiculous. The internet people were offering one radiator brand at 30-35% off. It made life difficult but their MD went out on a limb and wrote to every web dealer and said 'if you put our product out at these ridiculous discounts on your website I'll fight you in court'.
 
Q: That's a dangerous game though isn't it?
TC: Yes, but he just told them they could only say they're a better price than anyone else, but not that they could offer a 30% discount. One or two other suppliers followed his lead.

Q: What's Svedberg's internet policy?
AL: We only supply retailers who display our products. They can't have a barn in the middle of a field so it tends to police itself. But we see brassware manufacturers who've had their showers sold over the web for a number of years and they're making 1-2% margin. They're happy to take 50 orders a day over the phone and make a living.

Q: Is Edwins tempted to set up an online shop?
TC: Probably, eventually. That phone call I just missed could have been a £1,500 order, whereas if you sell products on the internet people can buy it from that end or at least see what we've got.

Q: Tell us more about the business...
TC: It started as a corner shop 26 years ago. These three shops are the operation and we also have a trade counter. Bill Edwin was an electrician by trade who got into Vola which at the time didn't have showroom space. So he dedicated a store to Vola, then moved on from there and started selling other upmarket products - Agape and Rapsel - and at the time it was way ahead of everyone else. We're not like the majority of bathroom stores with a set layout. We have odd items all over the place.

Q: It's still quite unusual to see a steam section in a high street setting...
AL: Steam has become more aspirational. You don't necessarily need a big showroom. Our 110cm steam unit is smaller than some shower cabinets. So rather than a shower cubicle have a cubicle with a steam generator, it's a way of up-selling.
 
Q: What do you make of other local showrooms?
TC: The problem is some still have a builders' merchant mentality. They talk about trade prices, they offer discounts regardless. We're not like that, we're old school but they're discounting to a point where it's just a bag of nails to them and price it that way. We tell manufacturers they're not doing much for their brand but their attitude is that times are hard so they let it slide.