A BRILLIANT BUSINESS BUILT THROUGH PERSEVERANCE AND SELF-BELIEF

Growing a business takes perseverance and belief. So says Jason Ashby who founded UK Flooring Direct in 2005. Now his Midlands-based company is the country’s fastest growing online flooring retailer – turnover was £54 million in 2020.

Talking to him, you’d think he had no shortage of either.

But while perseverance is clearly part of his character, self-belief has surprisingly been harder to achieve, despite words tumbling out of his mouth at breakneck speed.

“Entrepreneurs often wonder “am I good enough ... can I get to the next level?” he said. “Until recently that’s always been in the back of my mind.”

What’s changed? It could be that he’s had rather less time for self-reflection recently. Over the past few years, the business has grown very fast – all self-funded with no debt – but driving that expansion has taken laser focus and commitment.

And he’s not done yet. Jason, 48, says that there’s still huge growth potential in the business and the sector.

Last November to allow even faster growth, UK Flooring Direct secured £8 million investment from the Business Growth Fund, which allowed him to open a warehouse in Coventry.

“The UK’s home improvement market is worth £30 billion and someone is going to build a billion-pound ecommerce business in it.” Jason doesn’t say so –but that someone could be him.

The pandemic has seen internet shopping go into overdrive. Online retail spend rose from around 20 per cent of the overall market at the beginning of last year to around 35 per cent in November.

Will he ever open a physical store?

“No.” There’s a reason for that – he’s been there and done that, read on.

“Retail has changed for ever,” he said. “Digital brings convenience and the ability to self-inform. Why take two hours of your day to look at a few products in a store when I can use digital technology to show you many more and allow you to do that in the comfort of your own home. And I will send you samples free of charge.”

Making up for the lack of physical retail, UK Flooring Direct invests heavily in technology. “Our website is an information hub and some of the technology we are working on in the background is very exciting.

“What do our customers want to make their lives easier? Receiving samples, room visualisations, room measurement tools?

“Fundamentally it’s about delivering a great product at a great price. Then it’s about leveraging digital technology to make it easier for our customers and delivering an unbelievable service in terms of deliveries and returns. Simple.”

Disruptive retail gives big brands the jitters

Jason left school at 16 to work as an apprentice carpet fitter, earning £27.50 a week. Aged 21 he had several teams working for him, and by 28 he had opened a carpet and flooring shop.

The business did well for three years – it was one of the first to sell wood and laminate flooring but started to struggle when big box retailers such as Carpetright moved into the space. “We couldn’t compete on price, so I shut the shop, and with the money left (£500), I spent £299 on building a website which launched UK Flooring Direct.”

With no shop, no warehousing and just the website, the company drop shipped everything. Not that this was easy, Jason was forced to buy everything through distributors because the big flooring brands wouldn’t work with him. “They didn’t want anything which threatened their biggest channel: traditional retail.”

But with lower overheads, UK Flooring Direct attracted customers because it could sell cheaper online.

The business grew rapidly, turning over £3.7 million by its third year, all the time constantly battling with distributors and brand manufacturers. Eventually he bought pallets from distributors and shipped them himself, all the time making slight improvements on margins.

Then, overnight, things went south. In 2011 Google changed the way it ranked websites organically.

“As a result of the changed algorithms, we lost 60 per cent of website visits over a week and dropped from No 1 organically to 20 or 30 down the list,” said Jason. Turnover slumped from £16 million down to £12 million.

“We needed to make more money to cover the huge increase in marketing spend, so I began buying direct from factories in Europe and Asia, branding and trademarking everything with our name,” said Jason.

The business recovered fast, but the near disaster taught Jason a lot. “Losing the SEO ranking made us realise that we had to run the business differently. Before that we’d just followed the growth. It’s at those times you realise what you’ve learned. You don’t realise along the way.”

It’s all about your people

What’s changed to bring the business to its £54 million plus turnover? It’s about the people, said Jason. “The biggest thing for me has been about building a team. That’s how you really grow. UK Flooring Direct now has nearly 200 employees. We have a great culture, a fantastic senior team and incredibly talented people.”

But ultimately, Jason knows that everyone’s happiness and the growth of the company falls on his shoulders.

“I have had some good mentors along the way, and I could sit and listen to them for hours and take snippets out of their experiences.

UK Flooring Direct adapted fast. Whereas organic searches had cost it around 1p pay per click, the new regime saw the business being charged 50p pay per click.

“You have to have belief in where you’re going. Don’t worry about how you are going to get there, that path will change many times and you will find your way.”