Managing Director Steven Scogings understands what it takes to persuade customers to walk into his family firm’s latest electrical superstore, all 32,000 square feet of it.
He explains: “We’ve got to provide a good reason for people to go into the shop, we’ve got to have a good image.
“We have aisles 1.5m wide, everything is clean, tidy and spacious and they can see the products.
“We’re making it a great shopping experience so people can walk in and say ‘Wow!’.
“And that experience starts with the flooring.”
When it came to specifying flooring for Stellisons’ eighth store, in Ipswich, Steven Scogings and Matt Leigh, owner of design flooring specialists CCFS, chose vinyl flooring experts Gerflor without hesitation.
Steven Scogings explains: “We first used Gerflor in 2007 in Chelmsford after Matt suggested it. It’s a good price, but it’s not about money, it’s about how good it is and how hard-wearing the floor will be in a high traffic environment.
“I researched Gerflor online, saw it was used by major retailers and had a good warranty, so we tried it out.
“I was well-chuffed. It still looks lovely. We used the LVT Creation range and even now people still can’t believe it’s vinyl, not wood. It looks stunning.”
Stellisons has used Gerflor ever since, as the company has expanded into Essex and Suffolk. Steven Scogings primarily specifies from the hard-wearing Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) Creation range, which has 89 realistic wood and mineral finishes with an array of formats, grains and colours to create different themes and areas to enhance the consumer experience in the store.
Matt Leigh, owner of CCFS, regularly recommends Gerflor for domestic and contract work. He comments: “It’s a great product range, with a good choice of colours. They often have something different on the market to their competitors.
“Gerflor also provides an excellent service, they deliver direct to the site and always look after me.”
At the Ipswich store, CCFS laid down warm wood effect Creation Classic Oak on the ground floor; dark wood effect Creation Black Creek in the Miele appliance area; the pale tile Creation Panigale throughout the bedroom, kitchen and living areas on the mezzanine floor; and the eye-catching Taralay Uni Blanc for the LG product area.
Anti-slip Tarasafe safety vinyl flooring in the colour ‘Noir’ was specified for the customer toilets. Steven Scogings is thrilled with the final results. He said: “At our open night for the trade we had 140 people here from the industry and they were shocked at how stunning the shop looks.
“Someone from the electrical trade press said to me: ‘This shop has changed the face of electrical retailing in this country: it’s the best in the country'.”
The Ipswich store boasts the largest Miele and LG product centres in the country. Steven Scogings explained both manufacturers are delighted with how the flooring complements their products.
“Miele wanted a black floor,” he said. “They normally have gloss tiles, but I said I much prefer Gerflor: it’s easier, lays better, lasts longer and it’s easy to polish. Now he’s seen the Creation Black Creek, the Managing Director of Miele loves the floor. They said they prefer it to tiles.
“LG specified the Taralay Uni Comfort Blanc after I said I wanted to use Gerflor. They’ve seen it in store and are very pleased. They can’t believe how good it is.”
The LVT Creation range looks sophisticated, but its good looks are underpinned by a high-performance 0.7mm wear layer and an abrasion group T rating. This range is ideal for heavy footfall retail environments.
Taralay Uni Comfort is also designed for high traffic areas in public spaces. Available in 18 colours, it has high resistance to indentation from static loads and has excellent sound insulation.
Tarasafe safety flooring has a brand new composition with inlaid mineral crystal particles. This replaces the Carborundum particle that makes raditional safety floors inherently darker in appearance and more difficult to recycle. A greener and easier to install solution where slip resistance is an absolute necessity.
With high quality flooring an integral part of the look Steven Scogings has created around the appliances, he is also planning to take the next step of having a Gerflor display area within the store, so customers can replicate the showroom look at home.
He added: “Every detail has to be right and that includes the flooring.”
