A young female entrepreneur is celebrating business success six months after taking over the reins from her parents who ran the company for 30 years. Wear Valley Decorating Centre’s new managing director Helen Johnson has invested £10,000 on a raft of business improvements to bring its retail offer, operations and processes up to date to benefit customers and staff.
The centre, which has undergone an extensive makeover, now has a wider range of products, extended opening hours, a new sales and accounting system and an e-commerce website launching next month which will allow customers to browse the latest decorating trends, new product innovations and also shop online.
Speaking about the recent improvements, Helen said: “This is a very exciting time for my team and I as we continue to grow, make positive changes and introduce new product ranges to the centre.
“We have very loyal customers based in and around Newton Aycliffe, so it’s important when making any adjustments to the business or the centre to think about them and their needs.
“All the changes made will benefit our customers whether it’s providing more efficient billing and payment systems, extra opportunities to shop in store or online or having more products to choose from.”
27-year-old Helen comes from an entrepreneurial family and is sister to Crafter’s Companion founder Sara Davies, who recently announced she is moving her craft company’s headquarters to Aycliffe Business Park.
Helen returned to the region in November 2015 after working for corporate organisations such as Jaguar Land Rover and Hewlett Packard, and she felt the time was right to take on the decorating centre and believed she could bring a fresh outlook to the business.
She continued: “My experience from other business and retail organisations has been invaluable. It was always the plan to take over the family-business from my parents. They established and successfully ran a great family-owned, regional business for 30 years and I’m very grateful for all of their hard work and the opportunity to grow and move forward with the centre.”
Wear Valley Decorating Centre provides a large range of paints, wallpapers and decorating supplies. It serves trade and retail customers six days a week from its centre in Coundon, County Durham. For further information please visit: www.decoratingcentreonline.co.uk
