Trade Secrets - Compass Office Shop

Name: Emilie Clarke & Alan Heard

What do you do? We own the Compass Office Shop. We sell stationery & office supplies as well as artists materials. 

Where are you?   In Higher Street next to The Cherub Inn.

What’s your background? Emilie - I’ve worked for the family business for many years - Compass Marine & Events. I still do the books & look after the marketing and co-own Compass Books with my sister. Alan - I was previously a software engineer in the West Country. I wanted to do something different and we’ve long wanted to own our own business.

How long have you owned the business?   Two years last month. It’s been a stationery shop for at least 25 years.

How do you split the duties?  Emilie - I do the marketing & accounts. Alan - I do the rest! I handle the priniting & copying work.

How does a specialty shop like Compass compete with the big national chains?   Independents like us are few and far between. But we are affiliated to a major wholesale buying group. Consequently, we have access to at least 50,000 stationery & office supply items. Our prices are, therefore, competitive if not cheaper than many of the big stores, especially for computer peripherals & ink cartridges. We have a wide selection of the latter and can offer really great value. We are also able to compete with the online boys who, remember, will often charge you postage & packing on top.

We can source many of the difficult to find items really quickly, often within 24 hours. But just as important, is that we offer a friendly and local service. There’s no need to travel 10-20 miles when we can conveniently have it here quickly and cheaply. We pride ourselves on offering a really friendly and personal service and we’ll most often go that extra mile to help.

What other services do you offer?  We can handle many simple print jobs such as menus, flyers, wedding invites, change of address cards etc. We can print colour posters up to A3. We are also a copier service - in a normal month, we’re handling something like 15,000+ b/w copies. Copies are 10p/item but lower for larger quantities.

You supply a wide range of artists’ materials? Yes. The previous owners started this service. We have a big demand for our products from the many local professional and amateur artists. Our biggest selling item by far are watercolour sets to holiday-makers who suddenly get inspired to paint when they visit Dartmouth!

What’s good about owning such a business in Dartmouth? There’s little to beat living & working in a town like Dartmouth. But what makes it really worthwhile are the many interesting and friendly customers and locals.

What’s your contribution to the Flavel Centre Project? Customers can drop off their used printer ink cartridges (not Epson) for recycling for which we raise 50p/cartridge. All the monies raised (£600-£1,000 each year) go to the Project.

For more information: www.compassofficeshop.co.uk tel: 01803 833281

First published June 2008, By The Dart