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Shades Tiles, located in Hastings, East Sussex, is an excellent business model, combining attractive display, flexible service and canny marketing with 20 years’ experience in the trade.
Tile UK is a leading independent magazine for the tile and stone industries and paid the showroom a visit to discover the thinking behind the operation.
 Shades Tiles deals principally in healthy stocks of Spanish and Italian tiles – its best-seller is Monocibec’s Graal range, which has pride of place in the impressive, and newly-expanded showroom.
Spacious, well-lit and tastefully tied together, the display space shies away from individual samples – a pet hate of the management due to their tendency to misrepresent the final product – and instead features areas of tiles, correctly fixed, fully grouted, and, where necessary, trimmed. Shades only displays in-stock products, giving it greater control over its output. In general, the company does not ask its suppliers for sampling costs, special discounts or display stands.
Owner Peter Ferrznolo explains: “This reduces undue pressure on our agents. As a retail and trade tile supplier, we have an excellent range on offer, backed up by stock and instant delivery. Again, the stockholding comes into play – if the customer has mis-ordered, they can collect just a few tiles to finish the job instantly, and not wait around while the extra tiles are obtained.
“Behind the counter we have a tile library, which contains samples of all the stock tiles. These samples, which are given away for free, are full-size, and labelled with contact details.”
Peter Ferrznolo is an industry stalwart, and manages Shades Tiles as a family concern. He has three sons and a daughter – Jason co-ordinates the warehouse, Matthew looks after sales, and Michelle handles accounts. Daniel, his youngest son, once in charge of the distribution side of Shades, now operates independently as a tile agent for Italian and Spanish factories (see his profile in last February’s edition of Tile UK).
Shades Tiles is now 20 years old, and has expanded steadily. It is the area’s most popular destination for tiles, and offers a full fitting service, employing tilers of its own, so that, again, it can offer a better, more controlled service.
“We directly employ two tilers, and have another under instruction, who will be ready for tiling in about a year’s time,” says Peter. “I cannot understand how tiling schools can
say that a person can be able to tile after the shortest possible training course!
“We do not pressure our tilers into doing the job as quickly as possible, but let them complete the task to the satisfaction of everyone. It pays significient dividends, as we have never had a complaint about our work.”
The Shades Tiles philosophy is one of best practice – it endeavours to make tiles an honest, reliable and attractive choice for buyers, and much of its success lay in this integrity, and an ability to react to the changing needs of the market.
“The credit crunch has proved a crossroads,” says Peter. “It is making all manufacturers, and their customers, think very hard about their futures. What was good enough ten-25 years ago is certainly not good enough now.
“If we look at how other products – such as cars, food, electrical goods and DIY items – reach the market now, compared to 25 years ago, the difference is vast, especially since the advent of computers. Unfortunately, most tile shops, including some distributors and stockists, still operate how they did 25 years ago.”
“The biggest single factor is the web – we all now have a new, fast expanding and very economic method of achieving extra sales!
“This technology has to be embraced – we cannot stick our heads in the sand and hope it goes away. It won’t, and nor should it. It will change how customers buy our products, it will make for more effective pricing, it will expose overpricing, it will remove tile exclusivity to the benefit of the general customer, and it will be to the benefit of the whole industry.”
Shades is embracing this future, through the creation of a more comprehensive, interactive website. Dave Edwards, Peter’s son-in-law (the Ferrznolo family involvement at Shades does not end with immediate members!), leads much of the marketing activity at Shades, and is busy developing the site, which will feature virtual simulations of tiling projects.
The internet is proving an invaluable sales tool, and has helped the company expand its reach. With custom designs involving feature tiles becoming increasingly popular, Dave believes that the simulation section of the website is the logical next step in customer service – putting design possibilities in the hands of the buyer.
"Technology has to be embraced – we cannot stick our heads in the sand and hope it goes away. It won’t, and nor should it. It will change how customers buy our products, and it will be to the benefit of the whole industry"
There are plans to move to a larger warehouse by 2012, but for now, says Peter, the set-up is satisfactory. He is certainly confident that his business is heading in the right direction, despite the spending drought. However, his views on a certain other business model – small, special order tile shops – is uncompromising.
“The factories invest significant time and money in developing new ranges, but the vast majority of these ranges, mainly due to the larger sizes, combinations, and because each and every tile is different, cannot be displayed as single tiles, or even on a display board,” he says.
“The demands made by special order tile shops on the remaining distribution network, by way of free samples, free displays, free stands and very high levels of service/delivery that they demand, are costing the industry too much, and it cannot be sustained. A result of these attitudes is that traditional tile shops are failing because they do not move themselves forward.”
However, this is not to say that Peter does not have trust in the potential of local outlets – indeed, much of the success of Shades Tiles derives from a loyal customer base.
“The advent of the multiple tile retailer has helped to move the industry forward a little,” says Peter, “by raising the visibility of tiles in general – but because they use a ‘one shoe fits all’ approach, it is very easy to compete with them, as local stockists will know the local area better than a group of people sitting remotely.
“Being next to the sea, we’re theoretically in one of the worst places to sell, in terms of catchment area – half our customers are fishes!”
Tile Uk magazine
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