MyLife Bathrooms has experienced a meteoric rise in sales, exclusively through bathroom showrooms. Now introducing one of its biggest product launches, sales director Gavin McCrossan says there is no sign of a slowdown

Gavin McCrossan is sales director of MyLife Bathrooms

Although family-owned MyLife Bathrooms has celebrated its 10^th anniversary, the business is still a relative newcomer to the industry.

Founded by Andrew O’Brien in Newry, Co Down, the brand has had a meteoric rise from its humble beginnings.

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It has grown from a small warehouse to three distribution centres located in Ireland, Scotland and England, boasting a total of 129,000sqft stock holding, and employing 130 people.

Sales director Gavin McCrossan says the company’s rapid rise has been its strategic focus on quality, products, service, as well as selling exclusively through bricks and mortar retailers.

Such has been its success, MyLife Bathrooms was recently presented Supplier of the Year at Ireland’s Bathroom Trade Awards.

Supporting UK showrooms

Having established the brand in Ireland, eight years’ ago MyLife Bathrooms expanded into mainland UK.

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It brought its mix of products, all designed by an in-house team, which now spans ceramics, furniture, baths, brassware, furniture, mirrors, accessories and heated towel rails.

“What we saw in the UK is customers are crying out for something different and a brand that delivers on top quality service”, explained Gavin McCrossan.

Importantly, its portfolio has been supported by the company’s ethos of selling through bathroom retail showrooms, with its products not available online.

Gavin McCrossan states: “We sell exclusively through bricks and mortar bathroom showrooms. It’s very important for us.

“We want to protect the brand, and we want to protect our retail customers.”

At the same time, it saw the company set up distribution centres, to service its bathroom retail showrooms and establish a dedicated UK sales team.

MyLife Bathrooms set up a distribution centre in Wishaw, Scotland, which was followed by warehousing in Hailsham on the South Coast of England, before relocating it to Southam in the West Midlands.

“Towards the tail end of last year, we relocated the Hailsham warehouse to just outside Coventry, so that gives us better opportunity to service all of our customers, on our own vans, with next day delivery – and that’s the same across Ireland, Scotland and England”, Gavin McCrossan reports.

He adds: “We like to have our own vans on the road with our own employees delivering our own product. It’s all about service. That’s what our business is built on.”

Personal retail approach

MyLife Bathrooms has been one of a contingent of Irish bathroom manufacturers having recently crossed into mainland UK.

Headquartered in Newry, Co Down, MyLife Bathrooms also has distribution centres in Wishaw, Scotland, and Southam in the West Midlands

“I can only speak for why our business has done well and it’s because we are personable”, says McCrossan, continuing “It’s all about people at the end of the day.

“You need to competitive in the market, but our retailer customers understand that service comes at a price and are willing to pay for good quality product with good quality service and good stock levels.

He adds a personal approach is important to create a sustainable business. “We always talk in terms of partnerships, when working with our retail customers”, McCrossan adds.

So how has business been, with the retail sector being somewhat of an unpredictable and challenging environment? McCrossan reports despite the economy, MyLife Bathrooms business has been “really good”.

He continues: “Maybe we’re lucky that we’re a growing company. But you can’t take anything for granted; you need to continue to do the fundamentals correctly.

“If you continue to approach the marketplace with care and continue to keep your service levels, it all falls into place.”

Expanding premium portfolio

With sales growing at a rate faster than the market, McCrossan says the business has taken market share.

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Adding to the launch of its affordable MyStyle brand, most recently the company expanded its premium MyLife portfolio.

“We launched an incredible amount of new products, at the beginning of the year, including a new category of fitted furniture.

“And we’ve really mastered the uniformity of coloured finishes, over the years, so our Brushed Brass taps match our Brushed Brass furniture handles for example.”

He also points to MyLife Bathrooms as being able to offer a fully co-ordinated bathroom look: “We have a lovely spread across all categories, so an end user can generate their bathroom from top-to-toe from our one brochure.

“Consumers (and retailers) will go where it’s easy for them to buy. It’s particularly important when consumers have been taking longer to make buying decisions.”

But MyLife Bathrooms shows no signs of slowing, having recently introduced one of its biggest launches – featuring around 600 new products – and completement by a new brochure.

“We’re in a good place to attack the market in 2025.

“We’ve launched a new range of shower doors in different colours, which is going to be massive for us.

“We’ve launched a complete, new range of accessories and a complete, new range of heated towel rails. They are all premium products.”

New Year confidence

“Absolutely delighted” with the sales growth of MyLife Bathrooms so far, McCrossan says it has established a network of displaying retailers across the UK.

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However, the company is always looking to grow business: “We have some really healthy accounts in England. We will obviously look to add customers in England, but we want to do it in a strategic way; it’s quality over quantity.”

He is seeking retailers who will partner with the company: “We want good displays in showrooms that are be able to showcase the product, support us and we’ll support them in return.”

McCrossan points not only to product, service and stock availability but also providing retailers with marketing material, from instore POS, through to social media assets, inclusion in ArtiCAD and Virtual Worlds, as well as training and customer support.

“I recently had a retailer in England contact me to sing the praises of one of our customer support team, who had only been with us 6-8 weeks. That’s a reflection what we’re doing is right.”

And Gavin McCrossan is optimistic about business in 2025. He concludes: “We’re confident. There’s no doubt about it.

“We’ve put in a lot of hard yards to get ourselves ready to hit the ground running at the beginning of the New Year.”