Hunter Furnishing

Old-fashioned customer service with a fresh outlook

David Milloy

If you’re looking for an independent retailer of high-quality furniture with a great track record and an emphasis on customer service, then you should make Hunter Furnishing your first point of call.
Founded in the 1980s and originally based at McCall’s Avenue, the business was acquired by its present owners, the Richardson family, in 2006. It moved in 2011 to spacious modern premises at Heathfield Industrial Estate in Ayr, and that’s where you’ll find it today.
Hunter Furnishing and its sister store in Glasgow, which trades as Hampton & McMurray, both take pride in offering high-quality furniture and home accessories backed up by a commitment to excellent customer service.
As Director Alistair Richardson explains, “As a family-owned business, we place great importance not only in the quality of the products we sell but also in providing a relaxed and enjoyable customer experience. We pride ourselves in our product knowledge and we’re always delighted to help customers, but you won’t find any pushy sales staff here!”
This commitment to customer service excellence is evident from the moment that you pull into Hunter Furnishing’s car park, which is not only spacious but, thanks to recent works, has a surface that’s as smooth as a billiard table. And if you drive an electric vehicle then you’ll be delighted to note that there are four free-to-use charging points.
Stepping inside the bright and spacious interior, you’ll find a large number of well laid-out displays showcasing products from manufacturers of high quality upholstery, dining furniture, and bedding furniture, including Stressless, Ercol, Skovby, and Parker Knoll, as well as the new Jay Blades range from G Plan. There’s also a great selection of home accessories catering for a wide range of tastes, and there’s even an area where customers can help themselves to a free hot drink. Add in friendly, respectful and helpful sales staff, and a trip to Hunter Furnishing can be summed up in one word: stressless. It’s little wonder, therefore, that the company attracts so much repeat business.
For customers from further afield, furniture can be purchased using the online sales facility on the company’s website. But as Alistair explains, the company feels that its wares are best experienced in person: “The big advantage of having a physical store is that people can visit it to see and feel the quality of products before buying. There’s really no substitute for it.”
As for delivery, Hunter Furnishing’s fleet of vans deliver products throughout Scotland and beyond. Indeed, as Alistair points out, they’ve been known to make deliveries as far afield as Spain and Switzerland, and they’ve even shipped furniture to a customer in Australia. Hunter Furnishing also employs a dedicated carpet fitter, who has travelled as far as Switzerland to fit carpets supplied by the company – that’s how committed they are to customer service.
As for the future, Hunter Furnishing has a keen eye on reducing its carbon footprint, with the recent addition of 224 solar panels to the building’s roof helping it to become more energy efficient.
Hunter Furnishing, 3 Boundary Road, Heathfield, Ayr KA8 9DJ
www.hunter-furnishing.co.uk