Topps Tiles opened its first store in 1963 and, 60 years on, is the leading, omni-channel tile specialist in the UK.
Our customer mix continues to be one of professional trade customers and homeowners. We have been actively growing our sales to trade customers in recent years and last year 59.6% of sales were to trade customers (2022: 58.9%). The relationship between the two groups is very close – often a professional installer will use a Topps Tiles store as an extension of their own workspace, visiting the store with the customer or referring them directly to us. A key strength of the Topps Tiles operating model is that both customer groups can use the different elements of the brand in different ways.
For homeowners, the omni-channel nature of the Topps Tiles offer is key. Our award-winning website plays a key role in their purchasing journey, with customers using the website for initial research, inspiration, or to transact. Almost all homeowners also interact with our stores at some stage, for advice, customer service, to transact or to collect their orders at the most convenient time for them..
For trade customers, we offer differentiated pricing, bulk deals, a loyalty scheme and increasing numbers of proprietary brands, but most importantly, the convenience of over 300 local stores, enabling traders to form strong relationships with colleagues, built on trust and high levels of technical advice and service.
The Topps Tiles brand has high levels of brand recognition and, with more than three times as many stores as the next specialist competitor, it enjoys a very strong national presence. This year, we conducted proprietary research through a third-party market research agency, to measure this recognition. On an unprompted basis, against our tile specialist competitors, Topps Tiles has around 25 times greater brand recognition. Even when prompted, Topps Tiles has approximately 2.4 times more brand awareness than the next tile company.