Sometimes things don’t work out, and you have to take a step back to move forward – discovered Steve Pickering, the ‘unorthodox’ CEO of fast-growing South East independent bed retail chain Sussex Beds, when he was faced with a particularly tough decision this summer …
On February 26th, 2022, we opened our 13th store, located in Dover, Kent – situated on St James Retail & Leisure Park, a bustling site with many big-name brands such as M&S and Next.
We opened with anticipation and excitement, as our research had indicated great potential, with high levels of our key demographic within the catchment located on and around the outskirts of Dover, surrounding villages and towns.
The store initially traded well. However, within weeks, Easter trading was severely disrupted as the town’s roads ground to a halt with traffic congestion heading for the port. Freight vehicles stacked up along the M20. News of the chaos went national.
Unfortunately, these scenes repeated over the following bank holidays, half-term, and during the summer. The result saw footfall and sales plummet. Autumn recovered slowly, but nowhere near enough to offset the loss of trade during the key summer period.
Over the next 12 months, this pattern repeated, and during the latter period of 2023 into 2024, increased disruption saw store visitors fall by a further -24%. Therefore, with no outlook of improvement to the situation and an expectation of even further disruption from October with further port checks commencing, we made the difficult decision to close and exit the store. Its final trading day took place on June 22nd.
It’s sad and frustrating, and we could get into the blame game – Brexit, poor planning, incompetence – however, this does not help or change the situation. You just need to assess what you can control, make a decision, act, learn, and move onward.
Are you kicking a difficult decision down the road, putting it off, hoping things will change, when realistically you know they won’t? Sometimes, the hardest decisions are the most necessary ones.
Discover more of Steve’s thoughts in his blog.
