Csl Sofas

CSL Sofas

Industry	Retail
Founded	1981
Headquarters	Golborne, United Kingdom
Products	Furniture
Website	www.csl-sofas.co.uk

CSL, the sofa specialists formerly Clayton Salerooms and CS Lounge Suites Ltd, are a specialist sofa retailer started by the Tyldesley family in the north west of the UK.^[1]

History

The company was originally an auction rooms based in Clayton-le-moors near Accrington in Lancashire, which after including catalogue seconds lounge furniture in its offer moved in to specialist sofa retail and manufacture in around 1982. The company original started as a high street store chain, selling only its own products, later moved out of town by the second now second generation of the Tyldesley family Jason Tyldesley. The company ceased UK sofa manufacture around 2002, citing that it could source products in Europe, Eastern Europe and the far east at better value as the reason. CSL has an expanding list of stores on high-profile retail parks in the UK. The main offer of the business is leather sofas, fabric sofas, corner sofas and recliner sofas. The company has expanded steadily with sofa stores from Gateshead to the openings in 2011 in both Brent Cross, London and Purley Way, Croydon.

CSL

Now based at a purpose-built head quarters in Golborne near Warrington, the business has been careful to develop both experience and service. Advertising has been key with expansion into geographical TV regions and a clear move towards fresh music-based commercials. Stephanie Spencer Jason Tyldesley's partner has ben prevalent in the growth of the business, both singing covers and her own compositions as backing to what are unique TV commercials. One such creative being noted for its depiction of divorce and following the real life of the people within it. The business has been sometimes controversial in how it raises awareness. Christmas 2010 reportedly saw 251 complaints to the ASA as a result of an advert created to remake the Duran Duran "Girls on film" pop video, that used scantily clad women around the sofas. The complaints were not upheld and the advert was allowed to run despite its critics.

Employees

CSL employs up to 20 people in each of its in excess of 20 store chain and a further 400+ at its UK head office in Golborne near Warrington in Cheshire. The company operates all its own deliveries and service technicians in house with a training centre at the same location. In 2011 the business has a fleet of over forty 7.5-tonne vehicles as well as 20 professional technicians.

Scale

The business has four distribution centres covering all of its UK stores, Golborne being the largest at over 300,000 sq ft (28,000 m²), followed by one of 60,000 sq ft (5,600 m²) in South Yorkshire and one of 40,000 sq ft (3,700 m²) in Seaham in the North East. A further 30,000 sq ft (2,800 m²) warehouse was opened in mid 2011.

Firsts

CSL were the first sofa store in the UK to allow Mary Portas, Queen of Shops into their business and inner workings for a documentary on Channel 4.^[2][3] This expose was largely successful, leaving the business clearly stronger on service and transparency of operation than others shown in the same show.

Results of the TV show

As a result of the January 2011 TV show, the business took it upon itself to campaign for transparency of pricing and discount offers, offering to help change UK law surrounding what qualifies as a genuine discount in a sale and the criteria. A single price offer was put forward with a commitment from the business to maintain the lowest price possible as part of its quest. The show has been heavily reviewed and commentated on by publicists and

CSL were also the first company of its type in the UK to offer a range of sofas for delivery within 72 hours.

The business were the first UK sofa retailer to make use of the Apple iPad as a point of sale device for taking orders, designing a system in house.

Other facts

CSL joined the Furniture Ombudsman in 2011 and have been noted for their use of interesting creatives in their Extensive TV advertising.^[4] The business was also runner up in the 2010 MEN Business of the year losing to Pets at Home a national pet store but came first in the Business XL fastest growing business of 2010.^[5][6]

They have however been plagued by one particular negative blog, relating to both service and product quality, and have worked hard on reputation management with prominent commentators such as David Naylor having purchased furniture and through better experience commenting on their unfortunate lack of ability to shake a historical reputation problem.^[7] The site will become a test case for the effect of a single motivated individual on reputation and has shown that where no balance is allowed a perspective and voice can be given that can affect a business.^{[citation needed]} Independent balanced review sites certainly do not reflect the perspectives on the blog, managed by Geoff Walker, an ex CSL customer from 2004 and demonstrate the unbalanced nature of it.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ "CSL website". http://www.csl-sofas.co.uk. 
2. ^ "Review Centre". http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews-all-132565.html. 
3. ^ "Mary Portas Secret Shopper". http://www.channel4.com/programmes/mary-portas-secret-shopper/episode-guide/series-1/episode-2. 
4. ^ "Furniture ombudsman". http://www.thefurnitureombudsman.org/members-of-tfo/full-members/CSL+Sofas/. 
5. ^ "Manchester Evening News". MEN. http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/business/s/1325710_men_business_of_the_year_awards_2010_finalists_revealed. 
6. ^ "Business XL". http://www.growthbusiness.co.uk/news/business-news/1282548/sofa-seller-is-uks-fastest-growing-company.thtml. 
7. ^ "David Naylor". http://www.davidnaylor.co.uk/csl-sofas-reputation-management-problem.html.