Hats Off To…. Kersaint Cobb

A lot of carpet retailers up and down the country are part of ‘buying groups.’ The theory is that these shops band together as part of a greater whole and negotiate better deals and sometimes exclusive ranges for their group. It’s not a bad idea in some ways, but we have always preferred to plough our field alone. Monthly subscriptions often make it a case of weighing up the pros and cons rather than just adopting a ‘count me in, I’d love 5% off’ attitude.

Not being part of a group seems to make some manufacturers jittery if you are an independent store. For example Cormar Carpets (we sell a lot of their carpets but buy them via a wholesaler rather than direct) didn’t even bother to dignify our inquiry with a reply and that’s shocking really Mr. Cormar Carpets – you should be ashamed. Add to that Associated Weavers promised us all sorts of incentives, then promptly lost their rep and totallty reneged on the deal. The contempt shown to us by Associated Weavers and Cormar Carpets is nothing short of disgraceful and unprofessional given that we do sell a lot of their carpet and were just looking for a way to sell more and buy some nice display stands! Fair enough if you don’t want to open any more accounts in our area or whatever but have the decency and guts to say that to us.

Which is why Kersaint Cobb, the manufacturer of wonderful natural carpets came as a pleasant surprise. We don’t specialise in Coir, Sisal and so forth but we do jobs here and there with it and our fitters are fully experienced with it.

Their rep showed up promptly, listened to what we had to say and was happy to open an account and sell us a lectern with their top sellers nicely displayed – he even threw in a pretty rug stand. He recommended we see how that went before parting with hundreds for their super duper stand.

Kersaint Cobb always seem like a class act and their product, merchandising and professionalism are a breath of fresh air in this trade. They even have superb colour catalogues that make you want to buy their products, which I blogged about only recently on here.

Displays from Kersaint Cobb

(Originally posted 26th August 2009)