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Online tile retailer Porcelain Superstore has reported a rise in sales to £15.9m from £15m in 2021, recording its eighth consecutive year of growth despite supply chain issues.
Sales for 2021 totaled £15m, more than doubling the £6.65m recorded during 2020. The amount in 2019 was £3,706,000, a significant rise from the $2,170,000 in 2018.
Most of the clay for tiles sourced by Porcelain Superstore comes from Ukraine, with the war causing issues for its main manufacturers in Italy and Spain.
The tile retailer also said that it was also hit by the hike in gas prices and rising mortgage rates resulting in a housing slowdown.
Despite these challenges, the three brothers behind Porcelain Superstore are confident that 2023 will be another “solid” year of growth and “more profitable” due to better management of their pay-per-click sales.
It also attributed a key part of its success to bringing in retail operations specialists Brightpearl, who it claimed, transformed their online operation.
Porcelain Superstore’s surging sales are controlled by Inventory Planner software which ensures that all the stock is effectively managed and best-selling tiles are readily available.
Abbas Youssefi, founder of Porcelain Superstore alongside his siblings Ben and Sam, said: “Last year was one of consolidation because of huge issues with supplies and a challenging market. We were getting surcharges of up to 40% from the factories which added to our costs.
“We still bat well above our average and if you are looking for tiles in the UK you will find us.
We hope that once customers have shopped with us they won’t go anywhere else for tiles because we pride ourselves in our customer service.”
He added: “We have reworked the business so we are spending less money on getting eyeballs on the site which means we will be much more profitable this year. Samples are our chance to impress a customer and ensure they go on to place an order – it’s imperative we get the process of sending samples right. They have to be picked, packed and shipped quickly, with excellent comms along the way.”
