Growing up in retail and working alongside his family has also shaped his managerial style. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Carpetright has blamed Tapi’s “intensified competition” from its founder’s son for its recent troubles, but the company is paranoid about speaking about the battle between the two firms. Amazon Go takes the frictionless shopping experience even further. Martin James HARRIS. Tapi’s backers include the DFS founder Lord Kirkham, the Chicago investor David Herro, textile mogul Sir Harry Djanogly and of course the “king of carpets” Lord Harris of Peckham. As a start-up, Tapi has been able to take an innovative approach to all aspects of the business and the “edgy, modern-facing” flooring brand … From Samsung to Walmart, family businesses account for some of the most prominent and successful financial entities on the planet. “If we ever have a question and we’re not quite sure, I’m very lucky in that I can just ask my dad what he thinks about an area, he has a good memory even at his age, he’s a great person to just have on tap,” Harris continues. “As a retailer I am in an envious place, being happy with where we’re going at the moment. There is a two-month lag before Tapi books revenues from new stores, he explains, as it only counts sales once carpets have been fitted. “If we ever have a question and we’re not quite sure, I’m very lucky in that I can just ask my dad what he thinks.”, “Yes, when we put our accounts out there they show losses, but that’s because we’re in the development stage of our growth.”. “I could tell it was going in a direction I didn’t believe it should go in and I couldn’t influence it.”, “I see my role as more of a CIO, which is a chief inspiration officer, I think that’s my main role.”. “I left Carpetright in September 2014 at the AGM,” Harris tells Retail Gazette. Like many retail dynasties, the Harris family has remained largely out of the limelight. Martin Harris will hold the positions of Founder, Managing Director of Retail and Vice Chairman and will be focused on extending Tapi’s leadership in physical showrooms. active. He built the business into Harris Queensway, before selling it in 1988. Left carpet from an adjoining room not even underneath the new door bar which I purchased from them. Watch: Martin Harris discusses his new flooring store Tapi By Nicola Harrison , Roland Bodenham 2015-05-27T17:20:00 Tapi founder Martin Harris sits down with Retail Week to discuss the new business, his father’s reaction and what makes the brand stand out. Tapi previously predicted it would break even in 2017 and be profitable in 2018. "At Tapi, we place our customers firmly at the centre of everything we do - and it works! Harris is currently an advisor and shareholder of Tapi Carpets, a flooring retailer set up recently by a number of the old Carpetright management team. That was the start of Carpetright, where Harris junior worked for 23 years. Tapi tip: we advise removing the plants before you get in! 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But that was before he fell out with Carpetright’s management four years ago, cashed in his shares and swiftly set up a rival flooring business, Tapi, which has been blamed for pulling the rug from under the family’s former firm. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Tapi has been modelled on a partner-owned structure. Bath time with @simplelifewiththree featuring our gorgeous Vie Rotat... ion vinyl. CEO of Tapi, Martin Harris commented : "Tapi is delighted to be partnering with Homebase to provide customers with quality flooring products for projects, big and small. In 2015, the third-generation Martin Harris had a vision. Instead, Harris says he has been focusing on refining Tapi’s core offering, ensuring not to make the same mistakes that have been dogging its predecessor over the past year. CEO of Tapi, Martin Harris commented : "Tapi is delighted to be partnering with Homebase to provide customers with quality flooring products for projects, big and small. “It’s a big market, I’m not competing with just them … If that’s what Wilf [Walsh, Carpetright boss] thinks, that’s what Wilf thinks”, and for a moment his yogic calm evaporates. Martin James Harris has been working at TAPI CARPETS & FLOORS LIMITED since 03 October 2014, currently, he/she works on the position of a Director (COMPANY DIRECTOR). About us One Big Tapi Family. Tapi Carpets & Floors Featured Flooring Retail Case Study. In fact, Harris’ experience at both Carpetright, where he worked alongside his father for 23 years, and in the wider retail industry has been fundamental in shaping Tapi. James Sturrock joins Tapi Carpets on Monday // Tapi Carpets hires former Eve Sleep CEO James Sturrock to take top job // Tapi Carpets was set up by Carpetright founder’s son, Martin Harris Tapi Carpets has reportedly appointed the former chief executive of mattress retailer Eve Sleep, James Sturrock, to run its carpet-selling business. Join Facebook to connect with Martin Harris and others you may know. In a corner if one if the stairs the carpet was fraying the very next day. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Martin Harris will hold the positions of Founder, Managing Director of Retail and Vice Chairman and will be focused on extending Tapi’s leadership in physical showrooms. TAPI Carpets and Floors is budgeting for nine-figure sales next year, according to Lord Harris, founder of Carpetright and now adviser to the emerging floorcoverings retailer. To make his dreams come true, Martin convened a close team of the industry's best professionals and experts. Lord Harris, who previously has been an advisor to the Company, joins the Board as Honorary President, with a … Harris, a yoga novice at the time, set himself a Bikram challenge, requiring him to contort his body every day for a month in a heated studio in Canary Wharf, where he realised that sloping off to the other side of the world wasn’t an option and a return to retail beckoned. “I have some great shareholders who support the business all the way through and really believe very strongly in us,” he explains. “I think you should be (hands on),” Harris tells Retail Gazette. If that is true it probably means trading has got even worse for Carpetright, which recently reported a 8.9pc sales decline. Martin Harris. “A lot of sane people will see that, and we have other competitors to them like ScS – we aren’t the only two national flooring brands that exist and there’s lots of mamas and papas shops out there too”. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. Harris is aware of family duties more than most. He will become managing director of retail and vice-chairman of the company in the reshuffle. The UK’s market leader had to launch a £60m rights issue and push through a company voluntary arrangement to shed 60 stores to give it a fighting chance. The Retail Gazette spoke to him to find out more about his story. Although Harris’ decision to leave and create Tapi attracted some media attention, its rapid expansion to 105 stores since its inception in 2015 has gone largely under the radar. Ashley Armstrong, Retail Editor 2 January 2019 • 7:26am. We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future. He sold his first item – a doormat – when he was just five years old and spent his wistful teenage years as a shop assistant in his father’s store instead of going to music concerts. View the profiles of people named Martin Harris. Read our community guidelines in full, Martin Harris remains bullish about Tapi's future, in spite of the company not yet making a profit, The tough retail backdrop, a clutch of expensive loss-making stores and an aggressive new entrant almost pushed Carpetright to the wall this year, Questor: Dixons Carphone is misunderstood and undervalued. They arrived today! Starting his retail career at an exceptionally young age – being thrown into the deep end behind the till at peak times at 13 before joining the buying department at Hamleys when he left school – has given Harris a rare breadth of experience. In December, Carpetright posted losses of £11.7 million for the prior six-month period, following a CVA which has seen it close around 65 stores to date. Tapi was set up in 2015 by Martin Harris, the son of Lord Harris of Peckham, also known as the “carpet king”. Everyone at Tapi is excited to be able to create a modern brand that fits the traditional family values of the Harris Rugs. “We’ve been investing money into opening bricks and mortar stores over the last three years. Martin Harris has been dashing about carpet shops too much to spend time with his three-year-old grandson lately. It is founded by Martin Harris, son of Carpetright owner, Lord Harris of Peckham. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Martin-Harris Construction’s other 2020 ENR rankings, based on construction contracting-specific revenue, included: #8 Southwest Top Contractors, #82 Top 100 CMAR Contractors, and #160 Top 400 Contractors. In addition to the City of Las Vegas Municipal Courthouse, some of the firm’s recent, notable projects include: Harris argues that if the chain had halted its opening programme it would have been able to turn a profit much earlier, but it has ploughed money into stores instead. This somewhat unconventional method has largely proved fruitful for the young company, which has seen double-digit like-for-like sales growth every year since it launched. I will be takibg this further. In 2015, the third-generation Martin Harris had a vision. They make a sale but terrible follow up service when you have an issue. “At the moment we’re physically investing for the future,” he adds. Tapi Carpets. It has 114 stores but is now slowing the pace. TAPI Carpets and Floors is budgeting for nine-figure sales next year, according to Lord Harris, founder of Carpetright and now adviser to the emerging floorcoverings retailer. That was until Martin Harris left Carpetright, the company his father founded, to set up its key rival Tapi Carpets. Broke my skirting board. Sir Martin Best Harris, CBE (born 28 June 1944) is a British academic and former University Vice-Chancellor. They are simply "a big family"! His seemingly relaxed approach to online sales would serve as a red flag for retailers in any other sector, but flooring retailers like Tapi only receive around five per cent of their total income from their online operations. The longer you wait the more technology improves.”. According to Harris, this is both his advantage and his intention. “Really to become known is a check book, you just advertise a lot. Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter, Well I was screwed over by tapi carpets abused verbally an left in a home with three young children an a baby on the way with dangerous flooring nails wood the lot so hopefully they will close up shop they serve no purpose, So was my comment removed it’s ok all being documented ready for court screenshots too, I agree – you might know what you’re doing but your staff certainly don’t. We're with you however you need us. “And if you do that for long enough you think ‘why am I here?’ Eventually they said ‘do you want to go?’ and I said ‘I do, I’m really not enjoying it,’ and so they said ‘Go’.”. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Martin Harris will hold the positions of Founder, Managing Director of Retail and Vice Chairman and will be focused on extending Tapi’s leadership in physical showrooms. “We’re now two and a half years old, and on the basis of that and everything that has happened in the world I think that Tapi has been pretty close to doing what it said it would,” Harris says. |. “I can’t remember the last time that I was in a Carpetright store.”. Harris claims that Tapi has been performing better than the broader furniture market with positive like-for-like sales. There fitters lates carpet on my stairs and landing. “There isn’t another family in Britain that knows about carpets and flooring like the Harris.”. Only time will tell if it can truly avoid the “pain points” which have led to the near demise of its predecessor-turned-rival, but if there is anyone perfectly suited to pull it off, it is certainly the Harris family. He is indebted to his father, “Carpet King” Baron Harris of Peckham, for his career in the retail industry. Join Facebook to connect with Martin Harris and others you may know. One of our super specialists can... even come to you and help … Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. To prove his point, just two minutes away from the Tapi shop on an Orpington retail park is an odd gaggle of flooring shops including a gloomy Carpetright shop, together with cheaper, smaller rivals Trendy Flooring, Carpet4Less and Carpet Giant, all squashed in one corner. “One of the things we learnt from (Carpetright) was that we didn’t want 500 plus stores, we’ll get to 150 quite quickly and then very slowly organically growth the rest from there,” Harris adds. Bath time with @simplelifewiththree featuring our gorgeous Vie Rotat... ion vinyl. Lord Harris, who previously has been an advisor to the Company, joins the Board as Honorary President, with a … Tapi was set up by Martin Harris, son of the founder of larger rival Carpetright, Lord Harris. How can Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group revive Debenhams? Martin Harris sold all his shares in Carpetright and left the business in 2014, making no secret of his plan to set up another flooring chain. Harris, son of retail veteran and Carpetright founder Lord Harris, told Retail Week now is the “perfect” time to set up a big-ticket business. Lord Harris of Peckham and other backers of Tapi Carpets have pumped in £16 million to support the flooring retailer as its battle with Carpetright intensifies.Tapi Carpets was founded in … “Motivation is key to what I like to do, I like to be around all our colleagues, I like to congratulate them when they’re doing well, and give them advice and to train them.”. BACKERS of fast-growing carpet and floorcoverings retailer Tapi have taken total investment to almost £24 million as the company closes in on 70 stores nationwide. “Lastly we have fantastic landlords which help us get some really good sites which help us expand our business. They are simply "a big family"! Carpetright sources have accused the Harris family of using their inside knowledge to open Tapi stores directly adjacent to its rival’s best stores, which Harris denies, although evidence suggests otherwise. They sort if rectified 2 but have been now told by the sales manager after him coming to see damage that they won’t be taking my complaint any further. So how would he feel if Carpetright went bust? Follow. Martin Harris, CEO of Tapi Carpets, added: “Someone once told me that the only thing more boring than watching paint dry was carpet shopping, so I set out to change the process. These cookies do not store any personal information. For over 75 years the Harris family have kept their customer service values at heart, and in 2015 third generation Martin Harris had a vision. View the profiles of people named Martin Harris. I have found them to be rude unprofessional & inaccurate despite all their advertising of how brilliant they are.!! You can find our flooring and carpet stores all over the UK - we have over 140 carpet shops in major towns and cities across England, Wales and Scotland so you're sure to find one near you. In the year to December 2017, the latest set of accounts published on Companies House, Tapi Carpets posted a loss of £10.9 million, despite making sales of £56.9 million. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. “The economy is starting to hot up, people are desperate to find homes and there’s not enough choice out there,” he said. Porter, Larry C. “A Study of the Origins of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the States of New York and Pennsylvania, 1816–1831.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1971. During an economic downturn, big ticket items like flooring are usually first in line to take a hit, but according to Harris there are a number of reasons why Tapi is succeeding where others are faltering, going so far as to buy stores from its rival Carpetright. Harris’ calm and collected demeanour appears to be justified. active. To make his dreams come true, Martin convened a close team of the industry's best professionals and experts. “Martin Harris—Witness and Benefactor to the Book of Mormon.” Master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1955. Nowhere is this truer than in retail, with the list of family-built retail business in the UK alone including Arcadia Group, Pentland Brands, Clarks, Wilko, Shop Direct, Home Bargains, Bestway and Primark’s owner Associated British Foods. Six month ago, in December 2015, the town of Mary in Turkmenistan witnessed a long-awaited occurrence significant not only for the country, but for the entire Central Asian region: the launch of the construction of the Turkmen section of TAPI (Turkmenistan–Af ghanistan–Pakist an–India) gas pipeline.The parties signed an agreement on the construction of a gas pipeline at the end of 2010. Martin Harris has gone from Carpetright veteran to the founder and chief executive of main rival Tapi Carpets in just four years. Tapi’s rapid physical expansion and revenue growth, alongside its chief executive’s deep rooted and extensive knowledge of retail have put it in as good a position as any retailer could hope for to succeed in the current retail climate. “Because we have been focusing on the bricks and mortar side of things, we deliberately slow on the online side of things, because it’s the piece that you can catch up the quickest. 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