77 RETAILER INTERVIEW LARK LONDON www.larklondon.com What are your plans to develop your online presence? We’ve gone into warehousing a few years ago and we plan to invest more lines to go onto our website mainly including clothing as we feel this can be improved. Do you undertake any charitable initiatives? We support many local schools with raffle prizes and donations around 150! We also sell many charitable brands within all stores and do charitable events with staff including Christmas jumper day etc. Do you attend any trade shows? Yes, Spring/Autumn Fair, Top Drawer and Harrogate. Are you looking to open more stores across the UK? Yes but we can’t disclose locations yet – it’s top secret! What has been your standout moment since opening the store, and why? Winning the Best Specialist Multiple Retailer Of Gifts award at The Greats Awards. This meant so much to us as we’d been putting our all into the business for over 20 years, making a lot of sacrifices along the way that to be acknowledged for doing a good job was extremely emotional for us. Similar to a lot of self-employed business owners, it can be lonely having your own business and it can be easy to focus on the improvements that need to be made and forget about all the accomplishments you’ve achieved. In what ways are you positive about the future of independent retail? The positive attitude to shopping locally has been a fantastic movement for retail and it’s something that we really appreciate and grow from. What advice would you give other retailers? In this economic climate it’s worth investing in HR services that cost under £30 a month – they provide you with all the advice you need to make sure everything is compliant. Legislation is always changing and joining a HR provider has helped us hugely. What are your plans for the future? We plan this year to open more shops whilst also improving our current shops that need a bit of love. 77
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