VOW’s specialist interiors team was restructured during 2019, with an expansion from 8 to 11 dedicated team members under the leadership of Furniture Category Director, Vanessa Warne. Now all under one roof and fully aligned, the change has seen a remarkable upturn in sales and dealer engagement, which Vanessa puts down to the team’s CAN-DO approach.
Vanessa explains, “We recognise that our role in the supply of furniture is very much about service, and we measure our success not just in sales growth, but in delivering dealer orders complete, accurately, not damaged and on time.– this measure is an agreed KPI with our logistics partner, and that’s where the acronym CAN-DO comes from. But it also represents the willingness and determination of our interiors team to go the extra mile to support dealers and to build a phenomenal interiors proposition. It’s great to see that our customers are clearly appreciating our efforts.”
The proof is not purely anecdotal, the evidence is there to see in the division’s performance with 14% sales revenue growth in the core First Range, 500 dealers now opted in to receive VOW Interiors marketing, an increase in mailer demand of 40%, less than 1% damage and a next day service level of over 97%.
The success is driving innovation and expansion for VOW Interiors with the addition of 22 dedicated furniture delivery vehicles planned for March. These will be a mix of one and two-man vehicles, crewed by highly trained delivery and installation staff, operating from the dedicated furniture warehouse in Coleshill in the West Midlands.
The furniture showroom, which can be used by dealers to support their sales efforts, remains at the Arrow Distribution Centre in Lutterworth. Along with a team of specialist furniture business development managers to support our dealers, VOW Interiors offers a design, delivery and installation service and an average turnaround time for quotations of less than 45 minutes, Vanessa believes that there is no stronger support for resellers.
Vanessa continues, “Pricing of the First Range for 2020 is the most competitive ever. The range is supported by our MegaDeals mailer which is available free of charge to dealers on MyMarketing. In addition, dealers may still order copies of the VOW Interiors catalogue, which launches in Q2, until the end of the first week of February.”
“The range has been expanded to 6,500 skus, with increased stockholdings of the 2,500 catalogue lines stocked for next day delivery and a further 4,000 specials lines deliverable in 3-5 days. Our extended range allows us to support dealers to win those larger project orders, backed up with our exceptional in-house delivery and installation service.”
She says that the expansion has not only been driven by demand created by the project-led requirement for products, but also the commitment to offer more ergonomic and environmental solutions. “All of the wood we use comes from FSC accredited sustainable forests. We have removed all polystyrene packaging materials from our desking ranges and replaced them with honeycombed card, and all plastic corner protectors are now recyclable. All of these initiatives support the dealers in their conversations with customers and our evolution CSR program objectives, so they’re win wins.”
For dealers wishing to know more about the exciting developments within VOW Interiors or to familiarise themselves with the new offering, VOW will be holding interiors events in the North, South and Midlands. Confirmed dates and locations will be announced very soon.
For more information please email sales@vowinteriors.co.uk or call 0114 256 6000