Finally our New oak and Rustic Oak furniture replacement supply arrives direct from china. Not sure about a full delivery from China as it kills us unloading a full container in one go but at least the first supplies have arrived after a 10 week wait. We are now due a container every two weeks from now on so our stocks should finally be back up to pre Christmas levels.
The only time we had a break was when two of our ducks from the farm came over demanding food.
We are pleased to announce that we have improved our software on our website which has enabled us to add ranges and pictures in instant time. Our website now has our up to date prices which at the moment move up and down on a weekly basis. Fortune Woods have announced a 4% price increase from May 1st, Corndell have given us an amount they have not put down to a set percent, so we will add these shortly. Unfortunately on both of these suppliers they have put the cost down to container shipping costs from China. In 2009 a 40 ft container cost 400 dollars to ship, now the price has risen to 2200 dollars. All the other suppliers will probably announce increases shortly. It surprises us as the pound is getting a lot stronger against the Euro and the Dollar, but the Chinese have ruined our industry and now they call all the shots.
We now import the Devonshire Pine Oak ranges direct from China from the same factory supplying Devonshire Pine. We now sell it under the Fortune Woods brand and this has enabled us to reduce our prices for April and May on New Oak and Rustic Oak ranges. The downside to this is we now have 6-8 week lead times as Devonshire Pine virtually stopped supplies overnight and we have to wait for fresh supplies to cross the world instead of from a warehouse in North Devon.
To help Devonshire make up some turnover with us we have also dropped the price of the pine ranges they do which are Tarka, Badger and Chunky. This has been a very fluid week for us as we enter the summer period. With big retail groups like Mothercare announcing 111 shop closures, it show the most pro active retailer will survive and with that in mind we intend to keep expanding.
Holmes Hill Furniture would like to welcome the new trainee that came on the scene yesterday. she arrived at 10.00pm last night to the daughter of store owner Jeanett McFagan. Baby Skyler should be ready to start work part time in about 14 years and we congratulate Stevie Davies on the birth of her daughter.
We have received this letter from Devonshire Pine regarding supply delivery problems. We have found a replacement supplier that sells the exact same product with delivery expected in 6 weeks. We are sorry this has happened as this has made us look bad to all our customers that placed orders for the new oak and rustic ranges. The new supplier has shipped one container for delivery in four weeks and one a week should be arriving after the first one has arrived. With the large financial comitment this problem will never happen again as we will now be forward ordering even before we have taken future customer orders.
Thanks for bearing with us on this problem which was out of our control as you can see from the date of the letter. We as a store could not have done any more and will do our upmost to make things right as soon as possible.
devonshire letter
Thanks to all our customers who made 2011 another record year. At a time when the economy was really poor, we still managed to sell a record amount of furniture. Trade is difficult but with our determination to keep prices low and keep our standards of service high, we managed to buck the trend.
Christmas order cut off dates are already starting to hit us at Holmes Hill Furniture. Two of our French supliers have already shut off there order book so don’t leave it to long if you want your furniture before Christmas. We do place large orders before Christmas as the period between christmas and new year is our busiest week of the year, so we will always have something in stock if you need that table urgently.
While reading a blog of a competitor the other night i noticed a small note on there blog about the company being sold and ten local jobs being saved. I did have a little chuckle to myself as the company owner involved has made more companies go bust than you can possibly imagine. I personally know about ten in the 15 years i have known him.
What does it mean when a company buys another company? In this particular case it means the owner bought a new limited company, ran up debts on the old company and then closes the old company leaving suppliers owed thousands in unpaid bills and customers who have paid for furniture without either furniture or the money they paid.
How do you avoid this problem? Its fairly simple. If you are spending a lot of money, always put it on a credit card so you are protected, if you have doubts about the company, look them up at the companies house website to see how long they have been going. If the company is young and have filed no accounts then it does not look good. You would not hand your money over to an ebay trader who was new and had little feedback would you, so why do it to a shop?
If you have doubts and like the goods on offer, make a note of the supplier and ask a company like us for a pricematch. We will only ever take 10% deposit at time of ordering and a quick look at our accounts shows we have been around for over 14 years with no problems.
Alternatively give us a call anyway, we give good advice and know all our competitors so if someone is going under, we will quietly tell you.
Internet stores have a legal requirement to offer a 7 day returns policy as per the “Distance Selling Regulations” I have noticed a large amount of big and small businesses operating on the Internet that are sneaking in high return delivery charges to collect return items that customers are legally able to return. In the worst case i found a retailer in Surrey charging £50 per box to return an item. Bearing in mind a triple wardrobe comes in three boxes that would be a whopping £150 to return one item. There is no point in returning a Devonshire Pine Three Drawer Bedside at £71 if you are going to get a refund of £21 and that is why you need to see your furniture before you buy online. We at “Holmes Hill Furniture” no longer sell on the Internet as we want our customers to come in and see the furniture and the store they are buying from. That way there is no need to return the furniture as you have been able to see and touch the item you are buying !!! On top of that we will Pricematch against any nationwide store that delivers to your area.
I have noticed some customers have been recommended by stores to put wax on lacquered furniture. The stores in question are selling the wax at over £15 per tin when we sell it at £9.99 and we would not recommend the customer puts this on lacquered furniture anyway. Wax is only to be used on waxed pine or waxed oak furniture as it seals the wood from moisture and other stains. With furniture that is lacquered, the wax cannot get past the lacquer and is therefore wiped off completely when it is cleaned. A normal polish like pledge that you normally dust the house with is sufficient as it just has to polish the lacquered finish as it cannot get the wood to do anything. To put it in simple terms its like putting moisturiser onto your skin while wearing a coat. The moisturiser can only be applied to your bare skin and the coat would stop the moisturiser doing this. Lacquer is a thin coat that is applied to wood like a coat you wear. Nothing then can get through that coat unless you really soak it and wax will not soak into lacquered furniture. So save yourself some money and use the correct product at the same time !!!!
