Better Bathrooms

Better Bathrooms

Type	Private, Limited
Industry	Bathroom retailer
Founded	Wigan, United Kingdom (2001 (2001))
Founder	Colin Stevens
Headquarters	Leigh, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom
Area served	United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, Ireland
Products	Bathroom
Number of employees	270+ (October 2014)
Website	www.betterbathrooms.com

Better Bathrooms is a specialist bathroom retailer based in the United Kingdom, founded by CEO Colin Stevens. The company operates online and through its various showrooms across the UK.

History

Better Bathrooms was founded in 2001 in Wigan, England. The company started after CEO Colin Stevens followed in his family's footsteps of working in the bathroom industry and began by selling taps on eBay.^[1] Following this, the first Better Bathrooms store was opened in Wigan and BetterBathrooms.com was launched online. The company has since expanded significantly and now has showrooms located across the UK.

During a really exciting period, the business was honoured with 25 awards across three years – including Employer of the Year 2015.^[2] Better Bathrooms allows the customer to shop at a time most suited to them. Showrooms are open till late – up to 10pm Monday to Friday and are also open at the weekends.^[3] The business offers an extended exchange period of 365 days,^[4]

Milestones

• 2001: Colin Stevens began trading as Better Bathrooms on eBay.
• 2003: The Better Bathrooms brand was established and the website was launched; the company's first offices and a delivery store in Wigan were also opened.
• 2005: The Wigan showroom opened in its first location (Queen Street).
• 2008: The company acquired its first warehouse, relocated to a new head office in Glazebury, and a new showroom was opened in Warrington
• 2011: Better Bathrooms purchased a new head office.
• 2012: The Wigan store relocated to its current position at Wallgate, by Wigan Pier.
• 2012: A new in-house branded delivery service was launched.
• 2013: The new head office was opened attached to the Trade Counter and Warehouse in Leigh, Greater Manchester.
• 2013: The business received a £10 million investment from the Business Growth Fund – 30% of the business is now owned by the BGF.^[5][6]
• 2014: The company opened its first showrooms outside of the North West, in Leicester and Slough.

Showrooms

Better Bathrooms has eight showrooms/trade counters based in England as of February 2015;

• Wigan - Opened in 2005 and located on Queens Street. In 2012, the Wigan store moved to a new site at Wallgate; the 20,000sq ft showroom is currently the company's largest.^[7]
• Warrington - The Warrington showroom is located on Wilderspool Causeway in Stockton Heath.
• Manchester - The Manchester showroom is located on Chapel Street in the city centre.
• Leicester - The showroom was opened on 26 December 2013 and is located on Blackbird Road in Leicester city centre.^[8]
• Slough - The Slough showroom opened on 3 June 2014 in Bath Road. It was the first to open in the South of England.^[9]
• York - The York showroom was opened on 30 October 2014. It is located at Clifton Moor.
• Leigh - The Leigh trade counter is located at the 100,000 square foot Better Bathrooms' warehouse in Leigh, at Horizon Park.
• Didcot - The trade counter at Didcot is the second Better Bathrooms trade counter to open. It is located at Better Bathrooms' 166,000 square foot warehouse on Purchas Road, and was opened on 27 October 2014.^[10]
• Cardiff – Close to the city centre with onsite parking, this is the only Better Bathrooms showroom covering the South Wales area.
• Birmingham – The largest bathroom, tiling and lighting showroom in the UK, the Birmingham showroom was opened in December 2015. It features the very first Better Lights showroom, packed with lighting for all areas of the home; bathroom, bedroom, kitchen and outdoor.
• Edinburgh – A state of the art showroom which features touch screen technology which connects directly to the company website. This showroom also made a starring appearance on an episode of Kirstie and Phil’s Love It or List It on Channel 4.
• Romford – One of the largest Better Bathroom showrooms, and the second to open in the South East. The Romford showroom boasts more than 24,000 square feet of bathroom and tile displays.

Charitable work

Better Bathrooms has supported various charitable causes since its founding:

The Christie

In 2013, Better Bathrooms raised £13,000 for the cancer research charity, The Christie. In particular Better Bathrooms pledged their support, alongside Barclays Bank, for The Elise For Life campaign - a challenge to raise £1 million for The Christie over three years. The charity was named as Better Bathrooms' charity of the year for 2013, and a combination of internal and external fundraising activities during the year raised a substantial amount for the cause.^[11]

Breast cancer awareness

In October 2013, Better Bathrooms pledged its support to Breast Cancer Care by hosting a 'guess how many balls are in the bath' competition alongside internal fundraising activities. The total raised for the charity amounted to over £1,000.^[12]

Awards

The business has been recognised nationwide and has received various business awards including 'Best Home and Garden Retailer' at the eCommerce Awards of Excellence^[13] and a number #33 ranking in the 2012 Sunday Times Fast Track 100 list of the UK's fastest growing businesses.^[14] In 2014, the company was also listed at #82 in the Sunday Times Profit Track 100,^[15] a list published by The Sunday Times each year ranking Britain's fastest growing private companies by their average profit growth over the previous three years.

References

External links

• Better Bathrooms website