House UK has welcomed over one million customers through its doors since opening last April and enjoyed a “strong performance” in the Christmas period, according to ceo and founder, Steven Lew and buying and merchandising director, Kate Thompson.
House UK’s first stores opened in Oxford (last April), Bracknell and Sheffield’s Meadowhall (plus the online store), followed by Norwich and more recently in Cambridge, Bromley and Stratford. The last three opened within three weeks in time for the run-up to Christmas.
House scooped the Most Promising Newcomer Award at the Excellence in Housewares Awards 2018. The chain (which has over 100 stores in Australia) has ambitious plans for the UK. Steven states: “75 stores is still around the number of stores we’re looking at opening over three or four years, but we’re a private company and we’ll be lead by opportunities and the market is changing quickly.”
While there are many possible locations for new stores, the House team visits any serious possibility several times to look at “the shopping bag barometer not footfall numbers,” confirms Steven.
The retailer is trialling different sizes for its stores, with Cambridge and Stratford in smaller units. “We don’t have a cookie cutter approach,” says Steven. However all stores boast “silver service” levels of customer service, with investment in staff training and customer experience high on House’s agenda.
The retailer carries a number of brands that it has developed that are exclusive to the UK, including Cuisinepro and Baccarat (Australia’s biggest cookware brand) as well as a wide range of famous brand names.
For the full story on House UK, see the January/February issue of Progressive Housewares – out soon.
Top: The storefront of Oxford’s House.
