Tell us about yourself and your brand. How long have you been in business?

BBS is not a furniture brand. It's the team behind the catalogues, postcards and direct mail campaigns that land on customers' doormats — and the data that makes them work.

BBS is a family-owned data, software and direct mail company based in Wrexham. It's been in business for 46 years, helping retailers reach the right customers through better data, smarter mail and software that takes the pain out of postal production. Furniture retailers have been some of BBS' most loyal clients since the very beginning.

How did your company begin?

BBS was co-founded in 1980 by Bob and Shirley Carter as a two-person family business. Before BBS, Bob had worked on ELIZA — one of the forerunners of modern AI — and in 1976 was already using emerging computer technology and Royal Mail's newly introduced postcodes to identify and target voters in the Welsh referendum. It was one of the earliest recorded uses of postcode-based targeting in the UK.

In short, Bob saw the practical power of data long before most people had even begun to imagine it. Forty-six years later, his original instinct still shapes how we work: spot the problem, build something useful, do it properly.

Today BBS is run by Matt, Shirley's son — keeping the business firmly in the family.

Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give to your younger self?

This is Bob's advice, and it's the principle we still live by: stay relevant by listening, learning and improving. Don't stand still. Don't assume yesterday's answer will solve tomorrow's problem.

Also, innovation doesn't have to be flashy to be transformative. Some of the most important ideas become so embedded in everyday life that people forget someone had to invent them — postcode lookup is one of them. You don't need to chase recognition. You need to build useful things.

Could you share details about any new collections or ranges you’ll be showcasing at the Manchester Furniture Show?

BBS is showcasing the three solutions built specifically to help furniture retailers turn customer data into footfall and sales:

OptiMail — real-time data tools that clean, enrich and validate customer information at the point of capture and across existing databases

MailHub — postal software that simplifies production and unlocks significant downstream savings on every mailing

Direct Mail — end-to-end managed campaigns built to drive footfall, response and in-store sales

Do you have any personal favourites in your latest collection?

This year, the team's favourite has been a campaign it delivered for Jones & Tomlin (pictured, right) — "A World of Sleep," established 1946 — a beautiful seasonal mailer offering up to £400 extra savings to their customers.

Sammii from our production team summed up why it stood out: "The client is fantastic to work with and always has strong creative ideas, which makes the whole process feel really collaborative. The paper stock we used gave it a proper luxe, premium feel that elevated the piece straight away — clean, considered and high-impact, with every detail working together to make it feel like a standout mailer."

A confident, heritage brand paired with a premium, tacticle experience gets the most out of direct mail in furniture retail. The clear and generous offer gives the customer a reason to walk into a showroom.

What are you most looking forward to at the show?

The conversations. Furniture retail is one of the sectors where direct mail still works brilliantly — and BSB wants to hear from retailers about what's working, what isn't, and where they think the medium is heading. Some of BSB's best product ideas have come straight out of conversations on stands at shows

The business is also looking forward to seeing the work — there's nothing quite like walking a furniture show floor.

Have there been any highlights for you over the past year that you’d like to mention?

For BSB, it's been a year of stepping out from behind the scenes. The biggest moment was BSB's brand relaunch — the first major refresh in the business's 46-year history. We rebuilt our brand around who we are, who we serve and what we stand for. It was done in-house, which mattered to BSB as a family business. 

Also, the creation of Plan My Mail — BSB's new software designed to help businesses navigate Royal Mail's Universal Service Obligation reforms without losing campaign performance. Direct mail is central to furniture retail, and the changes Royal Mail is bringing in will affect how, when and where it gets delivered. Plan My Mail is BSB's way of giving retailers a clear path through it.

Where do you see the furniture industry heading?

Furniture is one of the last sectors where direct mail consistently outperforms — and we don't believe that's accidental. Furniture is a considered purchase. Customers want to see, feel and imagine a product in their home before they commit. Catalogues, postcards and well-targeted mailings do something a digital ad simply can't: they sit on a kitchen table for a week and pull a customer in-store.

What's changing is the precision. The retailers who'll win the next decade are the ones who treat customer data as a serious asset — keeping it clean, knowing who's moved, removing wasted spend, and matching the right offer to the right household at the right moment. The cost of poor data is enormous (around £12 per failed UK delivery, and roughly 8% of mail fails first time), but it's also fixable.

Our prediction: more retailers will combine direct mail with sharper data, smarter tracking and tighter integration with in-store events. Less spray-and-pray. More science.