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Warkworth furniture store BedsRus and La-Z-Boy Warkworth celebrated a milestone on December 9, clocking up 30 years in business making the owners, Ruth and Kevin Porter, the longest-serving retailers in Warkworth.
Ruth puts the business’ longevity down to stocking a wide range of New Zealand Sleepyhead beds and La-Z-Boy recliners and sofas, customer service and competitive prices.
“Mill Lane looked quite different when we bought the shop from Marie Brown in 1994,” Ruth says.
“There was a motel across the road and an old lady with a huge garden lived in a house beside the bowling club [where the Woolworths carpark now stands]. Gregory Ford dealership was on one side of us just below Wilmot Motors, and Guthrie Bowron and Ross Lynch’s vet clinic were on the other. Guthrie Bowron is the only store still here, although it has had several owners over the years.”
The couple’s two children – Mark and Angela – were seven and five when the couple moved from Auckland to Warkworth. Angela is now herself a mother of two and has been managing the store for the past two years. For the past 10 years, Kevin has worked as a St John paramedic, now based in Wellsford.
Ruth says that securing the BedsRus franchise 19 years ago and then the La-Z-Boy licence 14 years ago made a big difference to the store’s success.
“When we started, we were part of the North South buying group. We’d meet twice a year and it was a bit like a trade show, where all the NZ manufacturers could display their goods. But as the local manufacturers closed down, or went overseas, the group petered out.
“Being part of a national franchise like BedsRus meant we had help with promotion and marketing, and we were part of a chain that people recognised.”
Ruth says although the retail options in Warkworth are splintering into different neighbourhoods, she hopes there will always be a place for the central business district and destination stores like hers.
“We’ve got a strong, loyal customer base and have enjoyed wide support from the community with a lot of return shoppers, and delivery is easily arranged between Orewa and Mangawhai. We can match city prices so that people aren’t paying more to shop local, and we pride ourselves on our customer service.”
Ruth says the store has run “pretty smoothly” over the past three decades although a flood, caused by a corroded internal gutter, two years ago cost them dearly.
“We also brought a cat back from a delivery to a house in Snells Beach once. No one realised it was in the truck until we opened up the following day.”
Ruth says there has been enormous improvement in the comfort of modern furniture, especially beds. Chairs are not just to sit on anymore – they can be heated, tilted, leg rests extended at the push of a button, and some even have a massage function.
“We have SleepMap, a state-of-the-art, bed matching system, featuring 10,000 sensors which displays a real-time pressure map of the body. This allows staff to identify areas where a person might need extra support, or added comfort, and helps identify their perfect bed solution.
“One thing we weren’t sorry to say goodbye to was the waterbed. We were often called on to dismantle them and my husband always said it was the worse job he could think of!”
