About Us
The History of Queenstreet Carpets & Furnishings
For over 50 years, Queenstreet Carpets & Furnishings recipe of success has been founded on providing great quality, well-priced products with high levels of customer service throughout the South-West and across the United Kingdom.
We are a family business and have spent many years continually sourcing the finest products which are demanded by our customers and offer these at the most competitive prices possible.
Our experienced and friendly staff are on hand to offer knowledgeable and practical advice, to help you make your selection.
We pride ourselves in offering exceptional service and will ensure any problems, no matter how large or small, are quickly and professionally dealt with to ensure minimum inconvenience.
Contact Mark or Gary Dixie directly on 01392 433292 with any questions.
The Beginning
In 1967, The Carpet Bargain Centre was formed by Malcolm & Nikki Dixie, on the site of the current WHSmiths in Queen Street, in Exeter City Centre, selling a wide range of carpet products. The great 'carpet boom' had begun!
The business rapidly expanded and in 1968 relocated across the road to larger premises and renamed itself 'Queen Street Carpets' and became a Limited company.
The business blossomed and soon became a well known provider of carpets throughout Devon.
1970s
During the 70s, the business began to expand into furniture and beds and as a consequence purchased a 12,000 sqft former laundry warehouse in Alphington and opened a second shop, 'Dixieland Mills', which allowed the company to increase its presence in furniture, beds and carpet.
The business sold the property in Queen Street in the late 70s to focus on the much larger premises in Alphington.
1980s
The showrooms in Alphington were renamed 'Queenstreet Carpets & Furnishings', to reflect its history and product range, following the sale of the property in the City Centre.
Mark Dixie joined the company, in the late 80s, to run the day to day activities of the business, as the founder, Malcolm Dixie, took more of a back seat.
1990s
The business developed into a significant retailer of furniture, beds & flooring, and soon grew the commercial side of the business.
Commercial opportunities with local businesses meant that Queenstreet quickly became well known as suppliers of contract flooring, and later furniture, to hotels, holiday parks, restaurants, schools, professional services, letting agents amongst many others.
2000s
Gary Dixie joined the company in 2005, following 15 years in the travel industry, to focus on new developments. The company rebranded and began significant investment into developing the existing showrooms in Exeter and rolled out national sales via a new website.
Following a successful rebranding and an increase in product range, new commercial and domestic opportunities are realised within the flooring and furniture market, benefiting customer choice and price.
In 2008, the business was invited to be a member of the Minerva Furnishers Guild, a dynamic furniture buying group currently representing over 120 top quality independent furniture retailers located throughout the UK, Channel Islands and Ireland. Minerva is able to combine the individual strengths of independently owned businesses with the collective buying power of more than 150 stores, to offer well designed, quality furniture at extremely competitive prices.
In 2009, following the success of the existing website, a new improved website is launched to better reflect the new image, the range & quality of product, as well as to incorporate the latest developments in website design and technology.
2010
We are really excited about the future and great plans are in place to continue to offer great quality products with our well known attention to superior customer service...watch this space as Queenstreet Carpets & Furnishings takes a step into the future...
2011
We completed a total refurbishment of our carpet and flooring showroom with an investment of £50k. The new look transforms the shopping experience and makes it a lot easier for customers to browse our extensive range.
2012
The introduction of new sales and accounting software was a landmark moment in the history of Queenstreet. Not only providing significant efficiencies within the business, we also are now able to spend more time looking after our customers and ensuring their experience before, during and after their purchase is second to none.
2014
Our brand new website is launched five years after the launch of our first e-commerce website. Modern, fresh and easy to use. Designed as a shop front to our store in Exeter and as a shopping site for our customers further afield.
2015
Exciting development as we open our second store in the historic town of Topsham, near Exeter, under the name of CASA. Specialising in luxury sofas, beds, cabinet furniture and giftware. www.casa-furniture.co.uk
2017
We were proud to be celebrating 50 years in business in this year. As our two shops go from strength to strength, we began a further phase of refurbishment within our Queenstreet showrooms with more to come in 2018.
2020s
We launch our new websites....just in time for 'Lockdown #1' and 'Lockdown #2 and then #3! We now offer a much larger selection of product available to purchase on line from both of our stores.