London expansion paves way for ambitious growth at Scots flooring supplier

Scottish flooring suppliers, The Wooden Floor Store, has opened a 2,000 sq. ft. London boutique in the first phase of its ambitious growth plans.

The new showroom on Fulham Road in Parsons Green is expected to increase the annual turnover of The Wooden Floor Store group by 20 per cent, from £5 million to £6 million in its first year, and take headcount to 35 from 30.

The high-end boutique will supply premium flooring, including more than 100 flooring products developed and exclusively sold by the company.

The growth ambitions of The Wooden Floor Store, which previously supplied flooring for James Bond film, Spectre, include a tripling of its sites across the UK. The London store is the first franchise of the brand and is the model for further growth.

It currently has four outlets in Scotland (Glasgow, Edinburgh, Falkirk and Paisley), two in Northern Ireland (Belfast and Lisburn) and now, one in London, with plans to reach over 20 sites across the country over the next three to five years.

Richard Snape, director and co-founder of The Wooden Floor Store, said: “It’s fantastic to open our London site and bring our unique products to a brand new audience.

“In recent years we’ve solidified our position as a leader in the Scottish and Northern Irish markets, but we are always looking for ways to grow and develop our business and London was a natural progression.

“Our new townhouse boutique in London is our first foray south of the border. There’s a lot of appetite for our products and services already, so we’re in the early stages of discussions about another London location.

“We aren’t resting on our laurels, instead targeting a tripling of the size of our business over the next three to five years, targeting more than 20 showrooms. We’re looking at franchising as a vehicle for our growth and have a number of interested parties across the country.”

Fellow director and co-founder, Ross Nicholl, added: “There’s a gap in the market at the moment for a national supplier of high-quality wooden flooring, unlike other materials like tiles.

“We’re proud to now be the only wooden flooring specialists with a presence in Scotland, Northern Ireland and now England.

“Since Richard and I set up the business 18 years ago, we’ve developed more than 100 products, managing every stage of the process from forest to shop floor. Creating our own ranges and brands has proven vital in staving off competition from online suppliers.

“Having the infrastructure in place to import and store products makes our growth ambitions achievable in the short timescale we’ve set out.

“Our London showroom has had a great start with a high volume of orders in already and we’re confident it’ll add £1 million to our turnover in its first year alone. It’s the first step on the journey, and there are many more to go, but we’re relishing the prospect of the challenge ahead.”

The Wooden Floor Store supplied flooring for the set of James Bond film Spectre in 2015. Pinewood studios, which produced the film, approached the company with a £30,000 contract to supply flooring for a luxury Austrian hotel set.

Richard Snape also hold the record for laying the world’s highest floor at the summit of Kilimanjaro. He carried the boards almost 6,000m above sea level and fought off altitude sickness to raise money for the Bradley Logan Memorial Fund charity.