tile shop

[ms.tiles]

Hi All

Im looking into setting up my own tile shop but am having trouble finding suppliers,have phoned a few, ctd and waxmans naming a couple and the suppliers of the tile shop i use which is out of town. the tile shop i use will supply me at roughly half price but want to be sole suppliers.

im just after names of suppliers if anybody knows any.

i want decent tiles as i'll be up against Topps in my town.
Will also be doing wood flooring and maybe bathrooms.
I know of johnsons but at the moment just cant think of any.

any help will be very appreciated

mark

 

[DHTiling]

Try Grespania.. UK base is in Birmingham... Grespania UK Ltd, Birmingham, Manufacturer of Tiles and Tiling Products, a member of The Tile Association

 

[Dan]

Contact all the tile manufacturers and ask them for their distributors, then call them all and see what price lists you end up with etc.

Go visit all the tile shows as you can often find importers that are trying to get in the big shops and fail, will be happy to deal with the independents.

 

[swanman]

Good Luck with that

 

[ms.tiles]

thanks for the ideas

been trying to find suppliers but not much luck, found a load on the internet but most turned out to be shops and although they was miles away from us they wouldnt tell us where they get their tiles from.

365drills have been great and waxmans are getting back to us as are ctd.
looking at a few properties soon and will be calling warm up and tile rite tomorrow to see what they can do.
adhesive suppliers are after that.
would just like a few tile suppliers to get more info and prices. i dont mind spending 3 months researching it all to get it right.

many thanks

 

[Dan]

Tile shops wont tell you their suppliers. You'll need to ask the tile manufacturers who their distributors are. They'll give you the information quite easily.

Once you have the range names and whatnot, you can then find competitor tile suppliers to see if the prices are worth it for you. You'll find a lot of it is based on the qty you buy so consider that too.

Hats off to you for considering it. It's not a trade I'd like to be in though to be honest. It's quite competitive these days, at least online.

 

[Discount Tile Supplies]

thanks for the ideas

been trying to find suppliers but not much luck, found a load on the internet but most turned out to be shops and although they was miles away from us they wouldnt tell us where they get their tiles from.

365drills have been great and waxmans are getting back to us as are ctd.
looking at a few properties soon and will be calling warm up and tile rite tomorrow to see what they can do.
adhesive suppliers are after that.
would just like a few tile suppliers to get more info and prices. i dont mind spending 3 months researching it all to get it right.

many thanks

Hi

Give me a buz, tell me what your looking to do and i will give you some help and advise.

Edd

07775534263

 

[Discount Tile Supplies]

Well i did offer, u would think people would bite ur hand off!

 

[ms.tiles]

sorry Edd
i havent been on here a while and i will call you.
ive been working 7 days a week and worked the bank holiday weekend so just been concentrating on my day job but i have a friend thats putting in some money to the business and i can get her to call you tomorrow if thats ok.

many thanks

 

[Discount Tile Supplies]

Yes thats fine.

 

[Nathanael]

Hi friends.
Here is different type of tile shops where you can get good and fine tiles for your home and your shop and you can also get these tiles from internet.

 

[ms.tiles]

Hi all

Would like to thank Edd for taking the time to speak to Katie and passing on some great advice, sorry i havent thanked you sooner but my laptop charger broke and ive just had it soldered 5mins ago.

Quick update,
Ive had Waxmans rep round tonight and was very good, happy with the offers, free display boards, free amount of tiles to tile a wall to a certain area.
Spoke to Colchester tiles rep and they will kit out the shop for free aswell.
365 drills have offered us a great package
a few other suppliers are interested aswell.
my father is retired and has offered to work in the shop for free until we are established as we will still be doing the day jobs, i'll give him as much info as i can about adhesive,grout etc substrates and underfloor heating and ditra etc plus i'll leave him loads of paperwork to read and im only a phone call away. the wife only works 2 days a week so will have time for the shop plus she has run shops(not tile) in the past so knows how they run and customer service is second to none in our eyes plus quality tiles of course.

Need to find some property now and speak to government about any business grants etc and then the bank.

Really looking forward to getting it up and running and putting the time into it.

many thanks for all the comments

 

[White Room]

hope it works out for you and the best luck in your new venture

 

[Dan]

Nice one. Perhaps a decent thread this one then. 🙂

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Not wishing to put a damper on things but unless you have someone capable of giving the correct advice you could find things difficult.

 

[Peter]

Good luck with it, you're a brave man in this day and age with so many established shops going under and the rest of them just treading water, but if it works out then fair play.

Have you ever run a shop before and got many contacts and advisors in that area? Costly venture with lease, rates, stock, running costs, staff wages etc to pay out before you make a penny. Need to sell lots of stock just to break even.

 

[Discount Tile Supplies]

If only we all could have the correct advice John.

Like most things in business if it was that easy we would all do it. At the moment, in retail and trade sales, it is about breaking even or treading water and occasionally making a profit.

But “win some lose some” is an often occurrence, no different to when most of you guys set up tilling. I’ve been selling tiles for over 30 years and yes starting off now is difficult. But people doing it now are wiser and smarter.

Plenty of prep work and knowing your market. No different to setting out a large floor, rush it with no prep work and it will cost you dearly and in the long term possibly fail.

Distributors are falling over each other to supply new tile shops exclusively; you just need to cherry pick the products that you feel you can sell.

Nothing is a dead cert these days in what will and wont sell, look around any distributors warehouse and ask them. If you knew what was going to be a good seller you would be sitting next to Hector Riva tugging on a cigar!

But this recession isn’t going to last forever and it is a survival of the fittest. T/G CTD and similar companies owned by T/P or Saint Gobain don’t need to make money at the moment they are cash rich companies and are pricing other retailers out of business but you have to either move away from the cheaper tiles they sell and sell different, wiser and give good customer service. Its not all about price, looks at Topps they are moving away from cheap as there is no money in it, unless your owned by a multi billion pound company.

So as long as you don’t tie yourself in with a hefty long lease and massive rates etc. you could make a go of it.

Or do you all think that T/P CTD and T/G pay no rent and have no staff wages? They don’t get tiles and adhesive much if any cheaper than other importers I can assure you. But they don’t mind working on small or zero margins to squash their competition as they are subsidised by the parent company,

Sorry to go on guys and ladies! but stop lining their pockets!!!! as once the competition is finished and they have the monopoly, prices will go through the roof.

Good fortune to whoever starts in business today as it is not about luck any more.

 

[ms.tiles]

Hi

thank you for the comments, I have family to work for free until we are established and i expect them to learn the basics from me, tile ranges, adhesive, grouts substrates etc.
My wife has run shops, not tile shops but has qualifications in running shops merchandising etc.

We're not interested in taking any money out of the shop until it's established as we'll be working aswell, my wife only works 2days a week and my father is retired. If we get a good customer base then people will be getting a wage but we're all under the impression its going to be 6 months of hard graft but im certain the opportunity is there for an independent tile shop in my area to work and work well. 10 miles away in another town there is 2 tile shops side by side and they survive.

I started tiling 7 years ago and was a milkman at the same time to pay my bills so im not afraid to put the work in.
Sorry for going on but I wanted to show how prepared I am and we're still researching and probably will be for a few more months, its definitely something we're not jumping into.
Many thanks

 

[martin1c]

Good luck to you Ms.tiles. You sound like you're in it for the duration. As long as you can get people in the door and follow up with great advice you won't fail. You've probably done it already but speak to local trades and installers and offer them a discount or referral fee. Most businesses fail these days because they just expect to open their doors and people form an orderly queue - you have to work to get to that stage.