Spring is rapidly moving into summer and with it the prospect of warm and hopefully sunny weather. The good weather over our (very late) Easter has, of course, had a bit of an adverse effect on furniture sales – especially in bedroom and cabinet furniture departments. Fortunately the first quarter of the year was excellent – significantly better than last year – so, overall this year, we are still ahead of the game, just. Perhaps I should be wishing for a bit of rain and not just wall to wall summer sunshine!
We’re now recovering from our first AIS show at the end of April and it’s been great to get to know some retailers new to us – and us to them. The reaction to the four ranges we took to the show – Loft, Hollywood, Faro and Bergamo – has been excellent. It’s really good to see that it’s our better end ranges that are performing well at the moment – and I’m delighted that our semi-solid wood Faro is gaining recognition. It’s one of my personal favourites.
The Wiemann UK website is now fully up to date with all the key ranges we are selling here at the moment and within the next few weeks we’ll be distributing our latest UK brochure, which not only includes high quality photos of all our ranges, but also line drawings. So, the website and brochure together are providing both retailers and consumers with plenty of useful information about our comprehensive offering.
Marketing CDs for 2014 have also been distributed to customers. If for some reason you haven’t had yours, please contact Martina McEleavey on 01405 760661 or martina.mceleavey@wiemann-online.com
I can’t believe it’s only four months since my son Simon joined the business – he seems to have grasped the intricacies of our industry so well and so quickly and has been developing our relationship with retailers in his own area in the south as well as being heavily involved with national accounts. I think he’s even enjoying it! It’s so totally different from the FMCG markets he has previously been involved in – yes , we are a much more friendly crowd in the furniture industry, apparently!
And finally…. we celebrated my granddaughter Ruby’s first birthday last week. She’s walking now. Won’t be long before she’s joining the business too at this rate!