Jamie Burns profile

Jamie Burns has developed his furniture business in a recession without sacrificing standards or creativity. Holly Willis finds out how he does it

Jamie Burns profile

Jamie Burns started The Home Furniture Company nearly two years ago, and it just keeps going from strength to strength. He learnt from his parents who started selling sofas thirty years ago, but Jamie has since made his own mark, combining hard work with some innovative business ideas. The most noticeable thing about the 33-year-old father of three however, is how much he enjoys the job.

‘I’m like a kid in a sweetshop,’ he says. ‘I still get silly excited about new products when I go to trade fairs.’

The shop is a haven of comfy sofas, oak dining tables, beds and sliding-door wardrobes, with a few funky patchwork pieces thrown in. It’s a welcoming spot with a coffee shop named after his daughter Delia, and customers are encouraged to try out the sofas and tables while they sip their cappuccinos. The café has become a destination in its own right, with ladies meeting friends there just for a coffee and a chat, although Jamie admits he’s sold a lot of furniture that way.

‘The location works really well’, he says, ‘we pay lower rates here than in a retail park but the busy road means lots of passing trade. Being between Cambridge, St Neots, Cambourne, St Ives and Huntingdon makes us a good meeting point.’

He has big plans for the café and is hoping to offer it rent and rates free for a year, in a Dragon’s Den-style competition, to the person with the best new idea for how to run it. Having come across ideas like a combined café and florist or café-cum-bookshop he says the coffee shop could be a great business for someone who wants to do something really different with it.

Provenance

Jamie has also found that there’s a growing interest in where furniture comes from and what it’s made of. He has responded to this desire for quality and traceability at a fair price by only stocking wooden items from sustainable sources.

‘We don’t stock anything walnut and we use mature oak, from older trees near the end of their lives. It’s more sustainable and makes better furniture.’ Jamie says. ‘A young tree is full of moisture so it will be less resistant to changes in temperature, making it more likely to expand and contract.’

The human touch

Jamie prefers to offer his customers like human beings, preferring to offer them a coffee and a hello rather than the hard sell, and listening to their needs is another linchpin of the businesses success. His customers often tell him they are replacing cherished items they’ve had for decades or updating their homes once the children have left.

As well as free delivery, Jamie offers free assembly in your home. If you’ve ever spent hours on your hands and knees trying to build flat-pack furniture you will know what a sanity-saver that is, and with Jamie at the helm there sure to be plenty more good ideas like that in the future.