Victoria Plumb
Victoria Plum Ltd (trading as Victoria Plumb) is an online and mail order bathroom supplies company. Founded in 1999, it is part of the Walker Group, which also owns other popular home ware and furniture stores such as MFI Group. The company's aim is to design and supply bathroom items to customers both in trade and the public arena. Unusually, it has no physical shops or showrooms, and its entire business is concentrated only on online and mail order sales. The company's distribution centre is attached to its headquarters in Kingston upon Hull.
History
The company was founded in 1999 in a small headquarters in Kingston upon Hull, from which it still runs its operations today. The brand began trading in 2001 and has since seen consistent growth in sales and investment. In 2013, it outsourced its telephone customer service to KC Contact Centres, to handle an increase in calls corresponding with increased sales. In late 2013 it was announced that the company was seeking the advice of KPMG on a proposed sale estimated at £150 million. Victoria Plumb won the Retailer of the Year award in the home products section at the Venda ECMOD Direct Commerce Awards in London in May 2013. The company is listed at number six in the SME rankings for Yorkshire. In April 2014, it was announced that private equity firm TPG Capital had invested £200 million in Victoria Plumb after buying a majority stake.
Operation
Victoria Plumb designs, makes and supplies a range of bathroom products from its headquarters in Kingston upon Hull.
In September 2013 the company launched a revamped version of its website optimised for mobile browsing, aimed at enabling customers browsing in physical stores to compare products and prices online. A survey by the retailer also found that builders working on site found the website useful for finding products for custom bathrooms. In December 2013, the brand announced an expansion in its range for the following year following consultations with its customers.
On 2 June 2014, Victoria Plumb expanded their ever growing range by introducing bathroom tiles to their collection.
TV
Towards the end of 2012, the company launched its first ever television advertising campaign. It employed the help of Leeds based ad agency Principles in creating the advert, with Carat in Manchester recruited to handle media planning and buying. In early 2013 the company reported a significant rise in sales, from £19.1 million to £26.2 million. Buoyed by the relative success of the first run of adverts, the company launched a second campaign in 2013, this time working with CheethamBellJWT. The second advertising campaign proved more controversial, with some industry objection to the tagline "Quality bathrooms, not costly showrooms", although the advert won campaign of the week in trade magazine Retail Week.
In September 2014, Victoria Plumb signed up to sponsor the remakes of popular shows Celebrity Squares hosted by Warwick Davies and Sunday Night at the Palladium, to be hosted by a different comedian every week.