Finding the best place to locate my kitchen design business after moving from London toYorkshire
Your name: Michael Wright
Your company: Michael Wright Furniture
Company profile: Michael Wright Furniture
specialise in designing and supplying unique, stunning kitchens, as
well as creating kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and study furniture.
Michael Wright Furniture is based at a stunning showroom in an
unusual and beautiful location out in the Yorkshire Dales at
Blubberhouses.
Your position in the company: Owner
Founded: 2007
The business challenge case study
Case study title:
Finding the best place to locate my kitchen design
business after moving from London to North Yorkshire.
Overview:
I was born in Yorkshire and began my career with a
kitchen design business in Bradford. It developed quickly,
but the client base was primarily in London and I re-located there
in 1994, setting up a showroom in Primrose Hill, North London.
This was a hugely enjoyable and successful period during
which I developed an outstanding portfolio of clients.
However, after ten years in London, I decided to return to
Yorkshire - something I had often talked about with my wife and
where we wanted to raise our children.
I returned to live in the North Yorkshire area of
Summerbridge in 2003 and set up a showroom, renting a space
in my brother's furniture design business factory located in an old
mill. This provided me with a development period to consider how I
wanted to move forward.
I began my partnership with Effeti Cucine, the
innovative and timeless Italian kitchen brand and realised this
setting was not the ideal environment to showcase their kitchens.
Also, after four years I wanted to have my own place again.
The challenge:
Finding the right cost effective location and
appropriate environment for showcasing Effeti and associated
high-end brands - where I would also attract the right client
base.
The solution:
I considered a number of different showrooms which
were in key high street locations in Harrogate and Ilkley.
These are centres which would in theory work perfectly in
terms of potential clients, but were extremely expensive.
The timing of wanting to move coincided with the
start of the credit crunch and as well as needing to keep rental
costs down, I knew I would need to spend more time on
marketing and gaining contacts for the business. This helped to
counter-balance the benefits of being located on the high street.
If I marketed correctly to clients, they would come and find
me wherever I was.
Our showroom in Blubberhouses caught my eye
initially because of its idyllic location - looking out over many
miles of moorlands every day is breathtaking. However, onto
practicalities....the costs were considerably less, parking is
plentiful and we are near a high quality restaurant where customers
often visit us at lunchtimes. Deliveries are also easy.
There are also advantages which have arisen that I
had not anticipated, such as the fact the showroom has no windows.
This gives more display space and is easier to light and keep
warm.
I have also found that when we get enquiries and
potential clients visiting, they tend to be mostly genuine and lead
to positive results.
Key lesson:
Thinking creatively about location and not heading
straight for the high street has kept my business developing in
what turned from a credit crunch into a recession.
Top tip:
My key lesson has become my top tip, see
above!
I have also learnt not to invest large amounts of
money in marketing and PR but to get the message out through
contacts, word of mouth by clients and keeping a dialogue with and
updating the media regularly on business developments.
Overview
I was born in Yorkshire and began my career with a kitchen
design business in Bradford. It developed quickly, but the
client base was primarily in London and I re-located there in 1994,
setting up a showroom in Primrose Hill, North London. This
was a hugely enjoyable and successful period during which I
developed an outstanding portfolio of clients. However, after
ten years in London, I decided to return to Yorkshire - something I
had often talked about with my wife and where we wanted to raise
our children.
I returned to live in the North Yorkshire area of Summerbridge
in 2003 and set up a showroom, renting a space in my
brother's furniture design business factory located in an old mill.
This provided me with a development period to consider how I wanted
to move forward.
I began my partnership with Effeti Cucine, the innovative and
timeless Italian kitchen brand and realised this setting was not
the ideal environment to showcase their kitchens. Also, after four
years I wanted to have my own place again.
The challenge
Finding the right cost effective location and appropriate
environment for showcasing Effeti and associated high-end brands -
where I would also attract the right client base.
The solution
I considered a number of different showrooms which were in key
high street locations in Harrogate and Ilkley. These are centres
which would in theory work perfectly in terms of potential clients,
but were extremely expensive.
The timing of wanting to move coincided with the start of the
credit crunch and as well as needing to keep rental costs down,
I knew I would need to spend more time on marketing and
gaining contacts for the business. This helped to counter-balance
the benefits of being located on the high street. If I
marketed correctly to clients, they would come and find me wherever
I was.
Our showroom in Blubberhouses caught my eye initially because of
its idyllic location - looking out over many miles of moorlands
every day is breathtaking. However, onto practicalities...
the costs were considerably less, parking is plentiful and we are
near a high quality restaurant where customers often visit us at
lunchtimes. Deliveries are also easy.
There are also advantages which have arisen that I had not
anticipated, such as the fact the showroom has no windows. This
gives more display space and is easier to light and keep warm.
I have also found that when we get enquiries and potential
clients visiting, they tend to be mostly genuine and lead to
positive results.
Key lesson
Thinking creatively about location and not heading straight for
the high street has kept my business developing in what turned from
a credit crunch into a recession.
Top tip
My key lesson has become my top tip, see above!
I have also learnt not to invest large amounts of money in
marketing and PR but to get the message out through contacts, word
of mouth by clients and keeping a dialogue with and updating the
media regularly on business developments.
Find out more about Michael Wright Furniture
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