With shops in Freshwater, Cowes, Ryde, Shanklin, Ventnor and their huge store and distribution centre in Newport, Hursts is an Island institution. Tom Stroud goes behind the counter.
W Hurst And Son has been offering a mix of hardware, kitchen and household goods, tools and gifts for as long as many of us can remember. The slogan “Try Hurst first,” has been a mantra for many Island shoppers since the 1960s. In 2014 Hurst’s Newport shop is a landmark for the town, stretching across Holyrood Street. Behind the store is a distribution centre, with deliveries leaving Crocker Street bound for branches in Freshwater, Cowes, Ryde, Shanklin, and Ventnor twice a week.
“We try to provide customers with goods at competitive prices and with good service,” explains Managing Director David Bowley. “We’ve always been known for ironmongery and it’s still our core product. If you only need one 6-inch screw then you can buy it here, and we’re proud of that. You don’t have to buy a boxful or a blister pack and we are competitively priced.”
The company may have its roots in ironmongery but it has come a long way since W Hurst And Son began trading in Newport in 1886. Today the company employs around 90 people across the Island. The business has been owned by the same two Island families for over 60 years and has slowly evolved, adapting to the marketplace. David joined the company in 1965 as an office junior. Back then, 95% of the business was agricultural, supplying milking machines and shoeing horses around the Island with only a tiny shop. The company’s growth coincided with the closure of well-remembered Island brewers Mew Langtons, from whom Hursts were able to purchase land adjacent to their Newport store. “Lots of family owned Island companies have fallen by the wayside and disappeared over the last 20 years,” David observes. “Hursts really is the exception.”
The Newport store is the hub of the business. There’s a whole second tier of the operation to be found on the first floor of the building with thousands of items held in storage. 10 people work in the “goods inward” department, distributing stock to branches. 35 people work in the Newport shop, which also provides cover for sickness or holidays at other branches.
“We have quite a high staff ratio and that’s an important element of the business,” says Robin McLaughlin, non-executive Chairman of the company.
“Our customers are able to talk to somebody. We’re not a store where you have to go in and queue to pick something up at a checkout. We have staff across the store who will be able to talk to customers about the merchandise that we’re offering. We strive to make sure we have a good product range and a good depth too, in good quantities, so that we can supply from stock. That takes a lot of work behind-the-scenes. We try to have something for everybody.”
Keeping that broad appeal is a balancing act, mixing popular trends with a constant and reliable service in other areas. “The ironmongery base – hinges, nuts, bolts and washers – that rarely changes,” says David. “We do sell huge amounts of lightbulbs. Unlike small shops we’re not tied to any product range which helps us offer a wide choice of tools, decorating products and bakeware.”
The lighting and china ranges in particular do change regularly, and in the last 10 years they have evolved dramatically. “China collectibles, Royal Doulton figures or Spode were once very popular and they’re now a dead market for us,” explains Robin. “Goods and styles are more fashionable now and more disposable too. People buy things and in a few years, if they don’t like it any more, they will chuck it out and buy something else. Not that we hold ourselves out as fashionistas,” he laughs. “Tastes are changing and we try to change with them.”
Just as customer’s tastes and buying habits have changed, so has the economic landscape. No retail business is immune to the impact of internet shopping and Hursts has also seen many other national chains open on the Island offering similar products.
“New stores keep coming, they’re getting bigger and bigger and it’s getting harder and harder for us to stay where we are,” says Robin. “Asda is coming. More stores, particularly the large ones, have a non-food retail side in a big way and we have to respond to that.”
“It’s a tough marketplace,” David agrees. “We’re holding our own as far as our share of the market goes, with all of the increased competition that we’ve got. When you look at Newport you do see quite a few empty shops. It’s the service issue that I think we score on when people come in. Our customers value our service and the attitude of our staff towards them. We try to be as competitive as we can but we’re a small company compared to the likes of Amazon. We do sometimes get people who come into the shop, look at an item and then leave to buy it online. I also think people don’t like coming into Newport. Parking is the one big issue. People don’t want to pay and the charges keep going up. There’s also a limit to the amount of traffic that Newport can take.”
David isn’t a fan of the current trend for short term aggressive discounting, preferring to offer “realistic prices” in his shops. Hursts stores don’t open on Sundays or Bank Holidays and the stores won’t be taking part in any late-night shopping in the run-up to Christmas. “We’ve tried it but it isn’t worth it for us,” David says. “It’s partly because we’re a little away from the high street. Unlike the students employed on the tills in the supermarkets, our staff offer proper service and it doesn’t pay us to open on Sundays or off-peak.”
The stores do benefit from a tourist trade “to a certain degree”. One customer even came from Portsmouth on his boat to Newport Quay so that he could pick up a Dimplex heater. “You do get a lot of people on coach trips coming in on a Tuesday saying ‘What a lovely shop! I wish we had one near us’ and then walking out, which can be a bit of a nuisance,” David laughs.
For 2015 Hursts will continue to gently evolve their business. Robin and David are both cautious about notions of a recovery in the fortunes of the High Street, although David agrees that things are “picking up out there”. In recent years the business has definitely become more lean, with Hursts moving from 103 staff to 90 today.
“It’s been a bit of a struggle since 2008 and we’ve had to fight really hard,” Robin says. “You do need flexibility in hard times and we’ve embraced that with our employees. We try to give our staff the hours that most suit them. We want to have happy employees. We’re very proud that we didn’t have to make anyone redundant. We’ve always been willing to reinvest in the company and we’ve put a lot of money into bricks and mortar and the infrastructure of the company. Making things secure for the future is paramount for us.”
I suggest to Robin that there’s something reassuringly traditional about Hursts stores. “We’re not ashamed of that,” he grins.
First published in the November 2014 issue of Island Business magazine.
