A 140-year-old, family-run furniture store in Saffron Walden, Essex – currently owned by the fifth generation of the founding family – says that its solid local reputation and loyal customer base has been built on a USP of customer service.
“If you ring the shop, you speak to someone in the shop, or if you email or enquire online, you will actually get hold of someone that is working directly on the online sales, explains Kate Reed, co-owner and director of Angela Reed.
“We got a lovely Trustpilot review only yesterday saying, ‘it's like old fashioned customer service that I haven't had for ages’. I think that's amazing. When you find us, and you use us, you're like, oh, this is how customer service should be. We’re really hot on that. It means an awful lot to us.”
Kate’s husband is the fifth generation to take on the business, which is divided between second-hand antique furniture and Angela Reed itself, with 13 showrooms filled with new furniture and home accessories. Over that time, the business has seen major changes to the retail landscape.
“It's been tough few years,” continues Kate. “We came out of the pandemic, and it boomed, we couldn't keep up with demand. We relaunched our website for Angela Reed but not for the second-hand furniture because everything just moved so fast. Then the war in Ukraine hit and, honestly, you could almost of plot it on a chart. It just went downwards so we've been slowly building back. But the retail space has changed; footfall is down, people shop differently and what they look for in certain seasons has really changed. We've noticed this year particularly that when you would expect everyone to be buying garden furniture, people are still buying sofas and dining tables. It’s a real change.”
So, how do you begin to manage that shift?
“That's a really good question,” continues Kate, “and every time we try to do so, it's not how we think it would work.
For example, February for us would usually be a bad month. We historically plan for February being dreadful. February this year was one of the best months we have had. You can’t really predict. We had a brilliant garden furniture year last year; bought in loads of stock of a particular brand that did very well last year and then, this year, you no-one's buying it.”
And is does additional pressure come with taking on such a well-established, family business?
“For sure. You become the custodians of something. We don't want to be the generation that loses it, but there’s also a lot of pride. I met my husband when we were both working in professional sport in Bath, but he always knew he wanted to come back to Saffron Walden and take over the family business. He is very proud of that and was very honoured to come back and take it over.”
And Kate speaks highly of the independent scene in Saffron Walden.
“It’s a really lovely town with a really nice community feel,” she says. “There are lots of lovely independents. For us, moving back from Bath, it was a lovely town to move to.”
Kate is also a big supporter of the local Saffron Walden BID. But just how important is it to the town?
“I'm a big supporter of the BID, primarily to have a voice. There are lots of different stakeholders in the town so, to have an organisation that can cut through the noise and make you feel that you have a voice, is really important, especially at the moment. To be able to speak to someone and know that you then can be put in contact with the right person, or you can bounce ideas off them for promotion or ideas for the town is positive.”
Kate’s also keen to reinforce the importance of supporting local independent retailers, wherever you live.
“For us, it makes us sustainable, and that's the thing people tend to forget when it might be easier to shop on Amazon or with bigger chain stores.
We rely on people shopping with us, and it is that kind of use us or lose us message. We're fortunate that we're still here as lots of independents are not. Passion is key and we really care. If we get something wrong, we really care about making it good and making our customer service brilliant.”
Web: angelareed.co.uk
Facebook: @angelareedshop
Instagram: @angelareedshop