Scottish flooring firm with James Bond links paves way for English growth

Glasgow-based business The Wooden Floor Store is paving the way for further expansion into England as it opens a duo of new sites, with a third in the pipeline – as it plans to operate from more than 20 over the next three to five years.

The company marked its growth by completing the 'Floor Peaks Challenge'. Picture: contributed.

It marked the occasion by climbing the UK’s four highest mountains – in an adventure dubbed the “Floor Peaks Challenge” – and laying floors at the top of each.

The firm, which supplied flooring for the set of James Bond film Spectre in 2015, has made its debut in Peterborough and Reading, and is set to launch in Manchester.

The expansion is aimed to create ten to 12 jobs and springboard turnover by between £1.5 million and £2m.

The new showrooms in Reading and Peterborough take The Wooden Floor Store’s total retail sites to nine, to become the “only independent flooring retailer with a UK footprint”.

Now in its 20th year, the retailer currently has four outlets in Scotland (Glasgow, Edinburgh, Falkirk and Paisley), two in Northern Ireland (Belfast and Lisburn), and will have four in England after this expansion phase (it is already present in London).

The store in Manchester is scheduled to open in October.

Further expansion into locations across the Midlands, Wales, and South-east are in the pipeline and anticipated to materialise in 2020.

Richard Snape, director and co-founder of The Wooden Floor Store, said the business started 20 years ago with just £500 “and have grown to become the only independent with a nation-wide footprint”.

He continued: “Much like the Four Peaks Challenge, our growth has been an up-hill struggle at times and we’re not at the summit yet. We still have ambitious growth plans and hope to keep climbing.”

Fellow director and co-founder Ross Nicholl added: “We got some strange looks from other climbers at the summit of Ben Nevis when we started laying flooring, but we have always taken our own path and this just felt like a fitting way to celebrate we were literally reaching new heights.

“We’re delighted to have opened the Peterborough and Reading stores, and look forward to opening the Manchester branch launching next month. We’re in talks with parties across numerous sites with significant further growth opportunities down south.”

Regarding the Spectre tie-up, Pinewood studios, which produced the film, approached the Scottish company with a £30,000 contract to supply flooring for a luxury Austrian hotel set.