Why Leeds-based premium home decor brand Dowsing & Reynolds is concerned about the cost-of-living crisis

Although the firm’s customers have been largely sheltered from the impact of the crisis so far, the couple still feel it’s unfair that people from poorer backgrounds are feeling the brunt of it.

“As someone said to me recently, it’s expensive to be poor,” Mrs Dowsing-Reynolds told The Yorkshire Post. “It’s not fair.”

Even though Dowsing & Reynolds, which has 65 employees, operates at the premium end of the market, the owners don’t want to exclude aspirational people, who want to add a flair to their homes.

Mr Dowsing-Reynolds said: “Even though our products are premium, people will aspire to buy them as a treat or a luxury. Just because we’re premium, it doesn’t mean we sell just to rich people.”

The business is also concerned about the impact the cost-of-living crisis may have on its staff.

The living wage employer is keeping a watching brief on staff pay and has introduced a range of measures to help workers cope with some of the pressures they may be facing including free food at work. Mrs Dowsing-Reynolds said: “It just helps to supplement them so that they don’t have to bring lunches.

“We are a member of Plum Healthcare, which basically means we give all of our staff access to mental health support if they are struggling in any way.”

The couple feel that they have a duty to help their staff as much as they can and there are also business benefits to ensuring they are looked after.

Mrs Dowsing-Reynolds said: “If you’ve got staff that feel secure and happy, then your business works better. That’s why we do this.

“We’re doing it for the journey, we’re not doing it for the destination. The journey is all about creating a happy team that genuinely loves working here.”

Mr Dowsing-Reynolds added: “I always remember the mantra from my dad that the best deal is the one where both sides are smiling.

“It’s exactly the same in running the business. If your team is happy you get a better workforce that works better and is more efficient.”

It’s a matter of principle for the two entrepreneurs, who have signed their business up to the Happiness Index to measure employee engagement and satisfaction. Mrs Dowsing-Reynolds said: “Everyone should be doing this. It’s not to say we’re perfect. We’re not perfect. We get stuff wrong all the time but what we do is we welcome feedback from our teams.”

The business enjoyed a boom as a result of the pandemic with many people focusing on home improvements.

While that momentum across the industry is starting to level off, Dowsing & Reynolds is still well placed as a business.

In April 2021, it moved from its previous site at Meanwood to a new 28,000 sq ft base in Hunslet.

“We were growing before the pandemic but the pandemic helped us to grow even more and with that we needed more stock, we needed more staff so that meant moving to a bigger premises,” Mrs Dowsing-Reynolds says.

Earlier this year, the couple swapped roles with Mrs Dowsing-Reynolds taking on the role of CEO while her husband now focuses on design and development.

The business is aiming for “considered growth but in a way that our teams are happy, we are happy and we can just go on improving our customers lives with great products”, says Mrs Dowsing-Reynolds.

Showroom experience valuable for Dowsing & Reynolds

Dowsing & Reynolds opened a store at the Victoria Quarter in September 2019. However, in May this year the firm closed the showroom.

Ally and James Dowsing-Reynolds still believe that there is a future for bricks and mortar stores and are positive about their experience at the Leeds city centre site.

Mrs Dowsing-Reynolds said: We’d come to the end of our journey with that showroom. We loved being in the Victoria Quarter. Victoria Leeds were fantastic to work with.

“We learnt a lot. That was our intention. We wanted to figure out what is the physical expression of the Dowsing & Reynolds brand?”