Traditional town shoe-shop steps online
When Matthew Gardner bought Haswell Shoes last February, he knew he had acquired a shop with great tradition.
Haswell Shoes had been serving customers in Newdegate Street, Nuneaton, for 70 years. It is part of the town centre fabric with a loyal customer-base, much of it passed down through generations appreciative of the expertise and friendliness of the small, intimate shop.
Matthew was well aware that, while preserving the traditions which embedded the store in the town, he also had to look to the future: to embrace the way people live in the second decade of the 21st century. And that meant going online.
When founder Albert Haswell created the business in the 1940s, the nearest anyone got to going online was queueing up with their ration-books. The inventor of the internet, never mind the internet, hadn’t been born.
But now Haswell Shoes, in many ways the archetypal, traditional shop, has made the leap online – a vital move for a small business in 2016, reckons Matthew.
“It was something I really wanted to do when I bought the business,” he said. “The shop has a great reputation in the town and we have carried that on in the same way.
“But the online operation - shoesforyou.co.uk – complements that perfectly. Online we have 18,500 lines available, far more than we could ever keep in a small shop premises, and we can stock every type of footwear; from ballet shoes to wellies and flip-flops to fishing waders.
“We are very proud of the service we provide in the shop and will always retain that, but the fact is, as a business, you have to tailor what you offer to the way people live these days. Many people don’t want to, or haven’t time to, shop between 9am and 5pm. So a retailer has to be available to them whenever they want, whether it’s 10pm on a Sunday or 5am on a Thursday.”
Nuneaton breathed a sigh of relief last February when Matthew stepped in to buy Haswell Shoes, which was threatened with closure due to the retirement of Karen Little, who had run it since 1990. One of the great old town traders was saved.
Matthew, an accountant, had a personal reason to take an interest - his mum Marlene has worked in the shop for 15 years. But his investment was not sentimental. It was about buying a strong business to make it stronger.
He is adamant that the online presence is crucial to that.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for the business to grow and expand in the coming years,” he said. “We launched online in November and it will take time for word to get around but we have that presence now and hopefully it will snowball."