Island Life Magazine Ltd June/July 2009 | Page 124

life

LOCAL BUSINESS

Readers Interiors Shop Newport
“This recession isn’t the first challenge
we’ve had to face,” said Sammie Reader,
owner of Readers Interiors. “It’s just the
latest!”
Readers have been in retail for longer than
you may think – they opened their first retail
shop in Newport during 1994. Its original
format was as a factory outlet, with the sole
purpose of selling overstocks and seconds
from their manufacturing operation, based
in Cowes.
“The factory at that time manufactured
goods for retail chain stores in the UK.
However, the retailers started changing
their ranges more and more frequently, and
we found we had surplus stock left over
that we could sell ourselves at a discount,”
explained Sammie. “Our first shop opened
in Newport in 1994, and by 2003 we had
six outlets across the southern counties, and
five concessions in the North and Scotland.”
However, 2005 was a terrible year for
the Readers’ business. Firstly, the Cowes
factory had to close following a long period
of financial difficulty, a tragedy for the

124

business and staff alike, and as a primary
source of product for the shop its closure
left a huge gap in the shops range. Secondly
in the same year, their shop in Lower St
James Street was found to have structural
problems, and the business had to exit the
premises immediately.
“If we were going to save the retail
business, we had to act urgently. The “Just
Home” shop in South Street was vacant at
the time, so we relocated straight away.”
said Sammie Reader. “We also had a
long-standing desire of turning our factory
outlet into a home interiors warehouse
store, and this was the key opportunity to
restructure the format and product offer.”
Claire Poynter, the shop’s manager,
had just joined the company at that time.
Sammie and Claire quickly found they had
a lot in common – they both held the same
passion for home interiors, and had similar
ideas in what to offer that was not widely
available on the high street.
“We were already visiting the UK trade
fairs, but we decided that if we were going

to find products that were both stylish yet
good value, we would have to go further
afield.” says Sammie. “We spent time in
northern Europe and Scandinavia bringing
together collections of products that had to
be unique and exclusive to the island, but
also with the continual challenge of being
able to set good retail prices.”
Over the last four years, Sammie and
Claire have worked continuously to find
new products ahead of the competition. In
line with the new direction and style, last
year Sammie re-branded the shop as Readers
Interiors. “We needed our name to represent
that we had become an interiors shop, able
to offer furniture and accessories for every
room in the home,” said Sammie.
As you look around the Newport shop,
Claire’s passion is visible. “We want an
emporium feel to the ground floor,” said
Claire excitedly. “We work hard to make the
shop fresh and interesting, whether you are
a regular customer, or new to the store.”
There are over a 1000 different products
available just on the ground floor, grouped

The Island's most loved magazine