About us

Charlies is an independent, family-run business selling over 90,000 different products which help you enjoy your home, garden and time outdoors.

 

Our 8 stores, as well as this very website you’re on right now, proudly continue the legacy that we were founded on back in 1986… we only sell top quality products, we’ll always offer them at the most affordable prices and delivering the very best customer service will forever be paramount. 

Our story... so far

Rewind back to 1986 and Chris Lloyd, our owner, took over two army surplus stores – one in Newtown and one in Welshpool, Powys. Deciding to close the Welshpool store in favour of opening one in Aberystwyth, and introducing a broader seasonal product range which reflects our offerings today, you can still visit these smaller legacy stores to this day and they proudly sit as a key part of our heritage.

Our second Newtown store on Dyffryn Industrial Estate opened in 1988, followed by our next out-of-town store in Shrewsbury, Shropshire in 1995 (which relocated to its current site in 2007). The opening of our flagship store Coed-y-Dinas in Welshpool came in 2005. Sitting on a 273 acre site which was originally a grade II working farm for Powys Castle Estate, you’ll find a garden centre, country store, John Deere agricultural and turf dealership as well as a children’s play area and Howards restaurant. Since then we opened three further out-of-town stores Queensferry (2010), Carmarthen (2013) and Aberystwyth (2014).

Our team is now over 400 strong, made up of colleagues from our eight stores as well as those in our head office and 108,000 sq ft custom built warehouse. Based in Welshpool, rural mid-Wales, our head office is home to our Accounts, Buyers, Ecommerce, IT, Marketing and Warehouse teams.

Our warehouse team is responsible for all stock coming into and out of the business – from receiving containers in, to distributing stock to our stores, as well as ensuring all of our online orders are picked, packed and sent out to customers in the quickest possible time.

Visit one of our stores

What we believe in

We stock a wide range of excellent quality products and we work hard to always offer them at the best possible price. Everything we do is underpinned by a never-ending determination to better the customer experience – whether you’re shopping in store or online, receiving a product that has been carefully picked and packed by our warehouse and dispatch team, or speaking to any one of our teams, our people relentlessly strive for growth and improvement.

Service

We didn’t get over 40,000 excellent reviews on Trustpilot by chance… it’s a result of the same trust and positive word of mouth that our stores enjoy being experienced by our online customers too. Our customers are critical to our ongoing success so it’s only right that they get put first.

Quality brands

We sell good quality products from well-known and respected brands. We stock over 90,000 different items across a variety of categories including gardening, home and kitchen, outdoor living, camping, tools and DIY, clothing and footwear or pets and equestrian.

 

Price

Offering the best price everyday is an ethos that’s been with us from the very beginning, and not one that’ll ever be replaced. Our prices are fair, we don’t set them high to then drop lower and we never do individual discount codes.

 

Our people

Our people are by far our greatest asset and we're proud to say that each and every one of them share a commitment to delivering the very best for our customers. From the friendly faces you see in our stores to the careful hands that handle our stock behind the scenes, everyone gives it their all to really make a difference. 

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