High-volume UK account Ann's Cottage growing in tough environment

Ann’s Cottage is a popular surf chain and a high-volume industry account located in Cornwall in the UK. Started by Owner and Managing Director Rob Harris, there are now nine stores in the region and a growing e-commerce site.

I had a chance to speak with Rob Harris and a few of his employees about the operation.

When Rob was 15, he worked at a beach store attached to a gas station called Ann’s Cottage, in Polzeath. That’s also when he started surfing.

Although he went on to work in engineering for 10 years, when he was 26, Rob’s former boss at Ann’s Cottage asked if he wanted to take over the space. Rob, who’d always wanted his own surf shop, jumped at the opportunity and transformed the gas station and beach store to a surf shop.

The head office and warehouse are still in Polzeath, and the chain employs up to 250 people at the height of summer.

All the shops are located near all the main surfing spots: Fistral (literally on the beach), Polzeath (on the beach) & Bude (in a town by the coast), along with stores in popular towns such as Wadebridge, Padstow and Falmouth. There are also two stores in St. Columb, which includes Ann’s Cottage Clearance Warehouse and the Cornwall Surf Centre, the flagship location and one of the biggest surf shops in the country.

The landscape for retail in Europe has been really tough for many brands and stores, how are you doing at Ann’s Cottage?

Rob Harris, Owner and Managing Director: We have been lucky. We are located in a very seasonal area, so we rely a lot on the weather. This year has been fantastic for weather and for sales. We also just launched our fourth generation website, and our team has done a fantastic job with it.

I think most importantly, we have created a real family atmosphere and we try to portray that to our customers. We’ve kept our belt tough at times, but also really take care of our customers. If they have a problem with an item, we do our best to make it right or replace it right away.

Luke Fox, Ecommerce and Communications Manager: The online environment has become rapidly more aggressive over the past three years with independent retailers either disappearing completely or ultimately having to rely 100% on channels such as Amazon and eBay, forfeiting margins that they can ill-afford.  The major global players continue to dominate the market, littering it with deals and offers that small independent retailers simply cannot match.

We are in a fortunate position of having developed long-term relationships with our suppliers over 35 years and can therefore offer wetsuits and clothing at a better price than most online retailers, but we won’t attempt or be forced into matching the offers that competitors put out there. 

We have adopted a long-term strategy of ensuring our existing customers continue to return to us to shop by replicating the in-store experience online. This is achieved through constant reviews of our customer service, along with the four free HD webcams instantly allowing our customers to be transported to the Cornish Coast wherever they are in the world.

We also recently launched a Loyalty Programme that allows our customers to both collect and spend points in store and online. That helps us to communicate with our core customers and to understand them better than we ever have done before. 

See Page 2 for why brand variety is a key differentiator

What have been the key strategies you have used to thrive in a challenging economy that others haven’t?

Rob Harris, Owner and Managing Director: For surf, we offer customers a great experience because we host all the major brands under one roof. Our flagship store is about 7,000 square feet, so a customer can walk in and see the whole Rip Curl or Quiksilver range and mix and match what they want from all the brands. That’s how we did so well in the early days.

Now that brands also have their own stores, it’s made a bit of a difference, because having all the brands under one roof gives customers a lot of variety. For example our wetsuit section offers every brand and hundreds of colors and styles.

Additionally, none of our stores have stock rooms. We have set it up so we have one big warehouse that is 20,000-square-feet and a computer at each shop that speaks to the warehouse and will pick up product and deliver anything a customer wants (maybe a different size or a different color) and get it to the store within the hour. The vans deliver product to the shops from the warehouse at least twice a day.

The same goes for our website. If someone wants something online and it’s not in the warehouse, we can get that item from one of the shops and send it in the afternoon post. We have the advantage of not only having stocked products in the warehouse, but at nine stores as well.

How does your e-commerce site do and how big is it?

Rob Harris: Our online shop is one of our biggest stores and is growing. This is our fourth generation site, and we continue to improve it and the team has done a fantastic job.

What brands do best at your shops?

Rob Harris: Quiksilver, followed by a UK brand called Animal. It’s a surf and lifestyle brand in the UK and we also have four Animal franchise stores. They are an English franchise and very popular.

As for Quiksilver, their product has always been good, and as a brand, they are always bringing in new ideas and colors. I know they have had some problems, but if you look at how much time and dedication they’ve put into the brand over the years, it’s amazing and its still going on. Everyone seems to want to wear Quiksilver around here and the quality is good. And Roxy of course is also a great brand.

Then, Rip Curl, O’Neill, Billabong and the others do really well.

Andrew Nuttall, Director/Hardware Buyer: SUP has been strong this summer with Red Paddle sales being particularly good.  Summer wetsuit sales have been the strongest for a few years, with the O’Neill Hyperfreak range proving very popular. 

Sunglasses sales are way up on the previous year with Oakley and Ray-Ban dominating our mid-high price point, but Dirty Dog and Sinner are doing well at the mid-low price points.

And you just won an important UK retail award. Tell us about it. 

Rob Harris: We just won the ‘Lifestyle Independent of the Year’ Award for the second year in a row at the Drapers Independents Awards. They flew up eight members of my team. To hear we won for the second year in row was absolutely amazing and it’s all down to my staff and I am just so proud and honoured to know them and to work with such a dedicated hardworking team.

There’s a lot of people who work with us and have worked with us since they where school children from the time they were 16 through high school and a university. It’s a real family atmosphere and we treat our customers the same way and will do whatever it takes to make them happy.