Harts of Stur is starting its centenary year of celebrations. Four generations of the Hart family have made their own individual mark on the business. Based in Sturminster Newtown, Harts of Stur is one of the one of the UK’s largest in-store and online retailers of cookware, kitchenware and kitchen electrics. The business created one of the first transactional websites, which has since won multiple awards (including Excellence in Direct Retailing at The Excellence in Housewares Awards).
Managing director, Philip Hart reflected: “For any business to reach its centenary year is a major achievement. I’m immensely proud that our family company has joined the 100 club. I wonder if my grandfather Walter would have ever imagined that his company would still be going strong a hundred years from when he set up as a blacksmith after the First World War.”
Philip added: “Family is extremely important to us and this is why we will be celebrating this milestone with a selection of family-themed events and initiatives throughout the year.” Hart’s anniversary events will be widely publicised on its social media channels.
The Harts story began in 1919 when Walter Hart, freshly demobbed from the Royal Field Artillery where he served as a shoesmith, started his own blacksmith business. As his reputation and business grew, Walter was joined by his son Bill in 1941 to help shoe horses, mend cart wheels and other general repair work. Walter’s other son, Eddie, joined the burgeoning family firm in 1945 after finishing his National Service with the RAF.
In 1949, having outgrown their small workshop, two blacksmith shops and forges were subsequently built on the site of the current store. It was also decided around this time to branch out. As Eddie was not particularly keen on horses he started retailing agricultural ironmongery and manufacturing basic farm implements. A successful period as a manufacturing business then ensued and a brand new factory was built to support this success. Harts became a recognised name throughout the UK farming community – best known for their yard scrapers and feed trailers.
Philip Hart (the company’s current MD) joined the business in 1979, and set about transforming the retail shop from an agricultural suppliers into a modern, country department store. With an eye on the next big thing, Harts took its first tentative steps into mail order in the early nineties. A trading website followed in 1995, and was one of the first operational trading sites anywhere in the country. The Daily Telegraph wrote a feature about it at the time.
Philip’s sons, Johnathan and Graham, joined the family firm after finishing university, bringing with them a much greater understanding of the modern, technological world. They were to provide the next generational drive, rapidly pushing forward with the company’s online presence as well as improving the customer experience in-store.
Harts’ new website, which went live in September 2018, has already won industry awards for its revolutionary ‘headless design’ technology. Meanwhile, a multi-million pound improvement project is in progress for the Sturminster Newtown store this year. The phased programme of work will create an additional 20,000 sq ft of retail space.
The garden shop will be amalgamated into the main store allowing the old site to be levelled creating additional, and much needed, parking space. The exterior of the store is due to get a facelift and additional office space will be created.
Top: Harts of Stur’s centenary logo draws from its origins as a successful blacksmiths.
