YPIE Tour Blog Day Eight: DFS

Meisha-Grace Nicely of Parker Knoll writes about the Young Professional Industry Experience group’s visit to DFS.

Upon arrival at DFS, we were greeted by Russ Platts, Business Partner, and Harvey Ellis, Production Director.

Harvey gave us a brief overview about the company and how he manages production of over 4,000 units a week across the five sites.

Russ then gave us a detailed presentation about DFS, which included how Lord Kirkham started the business in 1969 from a small Billiard Hall in Carcroft and the company’s expansion to the 109 stores from which it operates today.

Following this, we were given a tour of the manufacturing facility,  and saw how the company cuts and sews fabric right through to frame production and upholstery. John Paul, Production Manager, also gave us an overview of how they transport loads to ensure they are cost effective.

We then went to DFS’s new design studio, based in a converted mill in Long Eaton, where we met Philip Watkins, Design Director, who showed us how the company develops new products.

After this, Russ drove us to the Darley Dale store in the Peak District, one of DFS’s biggest stores. This site is home to an incredible three storey photographic studio where Phil Mullins and his team shoot most of the collections.

Learning Outcomes

• Corporate Social Responsibility is very important to DFS and last year they raised huge amounts of money for Cancer Research, Children in Need and many other organisations
• Acquisition is a major part of the DFS strategy, more recently they have added brands such as Dwell to their  brand portfolio
• DFS will launch a new product in store and often if it doesn’t hit set targets over one or two weekends they will remove it from the store in place of a better selling product.

Though it is clear that DFS dominate the UK sofa market, we were unaware of how quickly they turnaround products in their stores, how its size and scale allows it to be proactive to market demands, while having the flexibility to react quickly to uncertainties.