00:00Yeah, hi, I'm Mountain Green Geelong, chairman of a company that sits before you now, and this is Matthew, my son, who tends to run the day-to-day running as sales director.
00:12So tell me a little bit about the last 50 years and about the business.
00:16We started, when I left school, I was a design draftsman for a furniture group, and then I went to the School of Furniture in High Wycombe for three years and did a degree in timber technology and furniture production and management.
00:29At the time, it was the best furniture college in the world.
00:33It used to be 300 applicants for 18 places, so I was very lucky to get in there.
00:37And then at that time, I joined Christie Tyler in South Wales, which again was the biggest furniture group in the country, as a trainee manager.
00:49Left there, came back down here to a local furniture company where I was works manager.
00:54And then I started my business, bought my first house, and the first thing I intended to do after leaving college.
01:04And I worked in the garage alongside my house, drove taxis in the evenings, and worked during the day, and that's where it started.
01:12So we started ostensibly just doing re-upholstery.
01:17And as I progressed in the first few years, I would see people and they were saying they had carpets or curtains, and I thought, why can't we do that?
01:25Because I had the technical knowledge to do it, so slowly we increased all those.
01:29And now we have a group of experts that is second to none, specialists in interior design, curtains, blinds, flooring, carpets, hard flooring, furniture.
01:41We make our own range of furniture, and we've done work for a lot of famous people over the years through interior designers.
01:46And we make a lot of things to customers' orders.
01:51And with the technical knowledge that we built up and the formal education I had beforehand, we just improved.
01:57We always thought that we wanted to be in the better end of the market for people that would appreciate the quality of what we do.
02:04So we've always angled our business towards better and better work.
02:08And the same with our staff. We have outstanding staff.
02:10We don't lose people. Most of our people, once they join us, I think, in 50 years, we've only had three or four people leave for various reasons.
02:18But they seem to love it here.
02:20We do have a family atmosphere for our employees as well as our co-directors.
02:25So we all pull together, row in the same boat, the same way.
02:28When Matthew joined the business, he had Young Ideas, which brought the company on, you know,
02:33got us back from writing orders on the back of a scrap piece of paper to we're fully integrated now with internet
02:41and all the rest in the modern methods of marketing.
02:46And he's done an outstanding job.
02:47I now pretty well sit back and only come in on occasions as chairman to discuss major points
02:53or offer advice if and when they need it.
02:55And the other director, Victoria, she is an accountant, so she runs all the company accounts and finances.
03:03And that's been a huge leap forward in our professionalism since she's joined us.
03:09And does it feel like 50 years?
03:11No. I mean, I'd spent 40 years, 35 years out on the road doing all the selling.
03:16And then I realised I didn't have to do it all myself and found we did a lot better when I employed people who had individual skills.
03:22But at the beginning, I used to do the repulsory, the curtains, the blinds, yeah, new furniture, everything.
03:29But so it's much better now.
03:31We have really well qualified people in every area.
03:35It's changed so much in the last even five, ten years, hasn't it?
03:39You know, over that 50 years, you know, the change that's happened in the first ten years, the second ten years,
03:48but even in the last five years since COVID, it's just been incredible, hasn't it?
03:52It has. We've had so many difficult times, like everyone.
03:55You know, we can't kid ourselves and say it's all been a gravy train, because it certainly hasn't.
04:01Is there anything you'd like to say to your customers and people that have supported you over the last 50 years?
04:07My view has always been that the best thing we've achieved and our biggest asset is our customers.
04:13And we have something we do a lot of stats now, so we're very clear on our figures.
04:17We do over 70% of our work is for existing customers or recommendation, which is a large amount for anybody to do, have that kind of thing.
04:27But we appreciate our customers.
04:28We write to them regularly once they're on our database.
04:30And we're always appreciative, as are all the staff here.
04:34You know, we bear in mind that the customer is the most important thing.
04:37And wherever we can, we accommodate them in any way we can.
04:41You don't please all the people all the time, and that's human nature.
04:44But we go a long way, and we have some wonderful recommendations from people that have praised us on various media.
04:52So, you know, that's what we're proud of, the fact that we have a good, you know, I feel some businesses, they get very successful, forget where it comes from.
05:00And it comes from your customers.
05:02And that's the only thing that counts, as far as I'm concerned.
05:04So, yeah, I'm very grateful to all of them, and I hope it goes on to the next generation in the same way, because both of the existing directors have the same attitude towards customers.
