Furniture retailer Courts is out to take market share from UK rivals such as DFS and Homestyle. A revamped home offer and aggressive pricing strategy is already fuelling double-digit sales growth.
Courts has injected new talent into the domestic buying and marketing team with a raft of external appointments, including Kingdom of Leather's Mireille Baumgart as buying director, Dixons' Gary Tubb as sales and marketing director and Arcadia's Simon Cooper as retail director.
Group chief executive Bruce Cohen said the strong team was helping Courts move ahead, with present trading up 'significantly' on the previous year.
New merchandise has been introduced across all product groups, with particular attention to core upholstery. Baumgart, who was contractually prevented from buying in some categories during her first months in post, is now free to develop Courts' offer.
Cohen said: 'We will continue to roll out the new (store) look, but the main focus will be getting the merchandising and marketing right. We are a lot more aggressive and competitive on price and looking to take market share.'
The international retailer, which has stores as far afield as the Caribbean and Papua New Guinea, suffered difficult trading conditions in South East Asia as the Bali bombing and Sars virus depressed local economies.
However, Cohen said the problems would not last forever. He added: 'Our worldwide spread means if you get hit in one location, somewhere else is doing very well.'
Courts posted pre-tax profits for the year to March 31 of£14.5 million on sales of£634 million.
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