The Bath House
Looking for natural, vegan and sustainable fragrances, skincare and bodycare, made beautifully by Cumbria based artisans, designed to be refilled, reused and recycled? Then look no further than The Bath House.
With stores in Bowness, Ambleside, Kirby Lonsdale, Knutsford, Ilkley and York and with plans to open a further store in Keswick, we were really intrigued to find out how online connectivity is supporting the success of this business and all it does. We talked to one of the foundersand directors of The Bath House, Nigel Brooks, to find out more.
Nigel told us “The Bath House came in to being in 1997 through a desire to create skincare and fragrances inspired by the land we live in, made with ingredients that are as pure and powerful as the landscapes that shaped us. We wanted to create products that didn’t just care for skin but told a story of craftsmanship, integrity, and the bond between people and place”.
“Online connectivity is key to so much of what we do at The Bath House. Almost everything touches it in some way whether that be our website and online shop, our social media pages, our newsletter, stock management, communication, project management, personnel, or the payment devices in store”.
“I spend of a lot of time working remotely from home using gigabit services deployed by B4RN as part of a community scheme. The roll out of the community scheme in my areawas extremely inspiring, bringing the community together to achieve a common goal and I must say I am extremely grateful for the work put in by many, including the supplier, as the benefits it has provided in terms of online access at home have been immense”.
“Like me, our Accounts Director and Accounts Team Member and our Creative Team work remotely. In addition to this we bring in specialist consultant and outsourced service providers such as our website development company and our digital marketing company who bring a wealth of knowledge and experience from the length and breadth of the UK to support our business. We also work with other suppliers and businesses externally on a day to day basis. In support of this, we hold weekly team meetings over Zoom with participants able to screen share information; without access to online connectivity this would not be possible. Online connectivity brings us all into the same room without the need for unnecessary travel enabling a more efficient and effective working practice”.
“The Bath House started simply, small batches, local hands and a commitment to doing things the right way. Since those early days we have grown but our ethos remains unchanged. All of our products are still made by us in Cumbria, and we take full ownership of the process from beginning to end”.
“Covid really changed the dynamics of our business, like many others, the only way we could generate income was via online sales which was something we had to really put a focus on and to be honest was what gave us a lifeline in what was a really difficult time in terms of business survival. We strongly believe that the ‘Covid years’ have had a lasting effect on the way in which customers wish to shop and as a retailer we have had to adapt to meet these new trends becoming much more interactive and engaging via social media and our website. Online shopping is huge, and without us and our customers having access to online connectivity this would simply not be possible”.
“Via our website, people can browse our products, read our journals and place orders. Wealso encourage those who visit our website to subscribe to our newsletter which we find really works as a catalyst to keeping the experience we provide to customers going and hopefully to keep them shopping with us. Our newsletter provides information on any offers we are running and directs readers to our latest journals which our customers find really interesting. We are extremely proud of the products we offer and the fact that customers return to us time and time again proves to us that we are doing the job right. Our website,
I would say, has been one of the most influential assets brought to the business since it began, it really has opened doors for us”.
“Social media is another tool which is extremely important to us. We use Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube to keep our followers up to date on all we are doing. We have strong followings with each platform and we find these tools really do work in reaching out to existing and potential new customers. We have specialist staff who keep our pages updated and fresh, monitoring engagement and focussing on how best to present our business on this huge platform”.
“In terms of furthering our outreach to potential customers, we use Google Ads as well as Facebook and Instagram advertising which pushes our products outside of Cumbria and further afield. This works really well with Meta (who own Facebook, Instagram andWhatsApp) pushing our adverts through to audiences who will be interested in what we have to offer. I think this is amazingly clever and proves just how far technology has come on over the last few years”.
“We use ‘Lightspeed’ as our electronic point of sale system. This monitors financial activity and allows us to understand sales patterns while supporting stock control. This informationis really useful in terms of forward planning and provides comparisons between days/months/years allowing us to monitor and see consumer trends which drive any decisions we make”.
“Our manufacturing team are based in Dent, here the products we sell are made from scratch before being sent to our Sedbergh base where they are hand finished and despatched often in wholesale batches to hospitality clients, to each of our stores, and to fulfil online orders”.
Behind the scenes our online connection supports a host of tasks and online functions; we use Trello, an online project management system to support our business, WeTransfer for the sharing of large files such as photographs and graphics, Breath which is an online portal that manages all staffing requirements (contracts, holidays etc), Bob UK Payroll Support for the handling of our payroll, Rota Cloud for handling the staff rota scheme in our stores, the list goes on. In fact, I would go as far as to say if we ever do find ourselves ‘offline’ then this does present a real headache for us”.
Nigel would encourage businesses and residents across Cumbria to look into the connectivity options available to them. “Being ‘online’ has opened so many doors for our business, I honestly don’t know where we would have been without it”.
To find out more about the connectivity options available in your area, visit the Connecting Cumbria website at www.connectincumbria.org.uk
To find out more about The Bath House:
Visit their website
Visit their Facebook page
Visit their Instagram page