Talking shop with Webbs
In challenging economic times, retailers need to work harder to win custom. For Andy Wrightson, Buying Director of Webbs Garden Centres, this means developing product ranges that offer something special. We talked to him to find out what this means for books.
A Webbs garden centre is somewhere local customers keep returning to. It’s been a part of many family Christmas traditions across Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, where Webbs’ four garden centres are based. It’s a place people come to enjoy their weekend.
Webbs opened its first garden centre in West Hagley in Worcestershire in the 1960s, but the family business began in the 1800s as a seed trader, appointed official seedsman for the British Monarchy. Today, the four Webbs garden centres offer customers a restaurant, a programme of events, and retail, including gifts, food, homewares, pets, as well as garden furniture and equipment, plants and seeds. The team works hard to make sure customers, who come from all walks of life, have a reason to keep walking through the doors.
“We’re trying to give the customers something a little bit more unique.”
“I think our customers are quite discerning. Without a shadow of a doubt most of the customers we get through the door know quality,” says Buying Director Andy Wrightson. “We’re trying to give them something a little bit more unique by selecting products that are not found in every garden centre around the country. That isn’t to say that we don’t stock things that you find everywhere but our mantra is that every category should have at least 20% of its range as unique as far as is humanly possible.”
Andy’s team source from far and wide to find unique products, globally and locally from small businesses. But this hadn’t always been the strategy for Webbs. Around nine years ago after trying and failing to compete on price with the large chains, it was clear something needed to change.
“We had just been stacking items and selling them cheaply. We realised that what we were doing didn’t present a nice retail environment for the customers and wasn’t much fun for us. So, we made a considered decision to say that’s just not where we want to be,” says Andy.
“We took around 25% out of the lower end of our ranges and added that 25% on to the top of the premium ranges, and we have persisted with that process for the last eight or nine years. If we want to introduce a new supplier, then we are always angling for the upper end of the market.”
“It didn’t really fit with where we were taking the brand.”
The books category also needed to change to fit in line with this new approach. Andy had only ever had experience with one supplier for books, which took care of all aspects of the range, from selection to display. But to align with the new product strategy Andy and his team wanted to have greater control over the book range. To do that, they would need to source books elsewhere, possibly without the support they had become accustomed to, which was a daunting prospect.
“Previously, our range was what you would consider bargain books: end-of-line titles with a sticker on the front. Our biggest sellers were two-for-a-fiver softbacks. It didn’t really fit with where we were taking the brand,” says Andy.
“Our Chairman Edward Webb trialed adding higher priced books to our food hall, sourcing these direct from publisher. Sales volumes were lower than we were seeing from the main bookshop but profit was significantly higher. So, we thought, well why can’t we do this? But it was a big pace change because the ball would be completely in our court.”
“We make more money out of less turnover now.”
Webbs appointed Bookspeed as their new supplier. It was a transition that gave them more agency over their book range, even if that came with a little more effort than they had previously experienced.
“Bookspeed was incredibly supportive throughout the whole process. They could see that we were nervous. We had little or no experience of selecting book ranges, so our account manager Gavin guided us through setting up the initial range and if things didn’t work, they helped us swap things over,” Andy says.
“Primarily it’s about having control of the range and having access to those newer, nicer titles. The books had a better look, better feel, and were better quality. Yes, they are more expensive but actually it doesn’t matter. We probably lost a bit of book turnover by moving, but we make more money out of less turnover now,” explains Andy.
“What we’re presenting to the customers is done in a way that represents us as a brand.”
The new range elevated Webbs’ books section to something that was more fitting for the gifting market. This is where Andy sees books within the product range, as an appropriate gift option for those special moments in customers’ lives. And the books on offer from Bookspeed fitted that.
However, displaying them was initially a challenge as the bespoke nature of Bookspeed’s service means that display materials aren’t included. After a bit of trial and error, the team began to understand what worked and began to appreciate the flexibility in setting up book displays to meet the needs of the experience they were trying to create.
“We now have a different look and feel to the bookshop, which was what we were going for. It’s more thematic and theatrical, as opposed to just plinths of stacked up books. At the end of this journey, we’re now in a place where what we’re presenting to the customers is done in a way that represents us a brand,” says Andy.
Top sellers at Webbs
- The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
- Wine Not: A Book of Grown-up Decisions
- The Air Fryer Cookbook
- Axel Sheffler's Flip Flap Farm
Talk to us
If you are thinking about taking on a new supplier for your books, get in touch. We'd love to have a conversation with you.
