Proactive facility upgrades and service support investment prevent growing pains for Richmond Furniture as it stays on track to double in size 

Richmond Furniture (Richmond) is a privately owned, family business founded in 1987, with roots that stretch all the way back to 1935. Sales and Marketing Director, Jim Bebbington joins Manufacturing Today to share some highlights of the company’s storied history: “Over the course of its history the business has a wide range of experience; we even had some success manufacturing fruit machines in the 1980s for example, but furniture has always been our mainstay. The company has experienced several boom, bust and build cycles and proved resilient, overcoming some significant challenges along the way. 

“Since I joined the company, my goal was to build the business in its traditional markets: public sector, private development, high rise residential, build to rent, purpose-built student accommodation, and trade merchants. I am pleased to say we have grown in all these sectors. This growth is highlighted by our Order Acceptance growth in 2024, which finished 124 percent ahead of the previous year. We have colossal growth coming into the business now, and this is across all the sectors. Given some of the challenges of our competitors, this is a great position to be in. Today, kitchens represent our main product line, but we also manufacture high quality bedroom and associated furniture for larger, fast-moving projects.” 

Meeting the increases in demand has required some expansion and upgrading of the company’s manufacturing facilities which Jim outlines: “We are based in a building with a lot of heritage (the original toilets went back to Victorian times) and have been here since day one. Visitors like the welcoming facility and its many features of interest. It has expanded from the building we first moved into, and we continue to be proactive in supporting our growth. For example, we have completely renewed our fleet over the last four years. At the same time, we have invested in new machines and equipment to improve the efficiency of our manufacturing processes, ensuring our customer service is not impacted by our growth. In the last 12 months we have installed a biomass boiler to further improve our impact on our environment. 

“All of our manufacturing is based in the UK, in Hadfield. We have been very fortunate to avoid some of the challenges other companies have faced, both in terms of dramatic price increases and the availability of products. Like many companies we will have the challenge of the recent changes implemented by the UK Government relating to rises in minimum wage and national insurance contributions. These have a significant impact from a cost point of view. To overcome this obstacle, we have been working very hard on procurement in the last 14 months. We brought in a specialist who I have worked closely with in my previous business, they have already made great progress with new suppliers sourced and improvements to existing commercial arrangements. In year one this has returned a £200k improvement to profitability and by year two this will increase to £350k. This has helped us and our customers by reducing the level of price increase required for 2025, ensuring we remain one of the most competitive providers in our markets. 

“Over this period, we have also established our Training Hub. This new facility was created within our complex to help us show case our wonderful products and services to many of our clients in 2024. We also use this as a training facility for our staff, and our suppliers use it as well. It has proven incredibly successful, at times averaging three visits per week. Due to the level of success experienced, we are in the process of expanding the training hub with support from our suppliers. We are really excited about the further opportunities this will bring the business. 

“There are some key strategic changes that fueled the wave of growth the business has experienced. We completely revitalized the sales team within 12 months of joining the business, and spent a lot on marketing, creating a unique brand for each of the sectors we operate in. Previously, for example, our social housing products were simply under the banner of social housing. Now, we have five brands to support each sector that we are active in. We changed our approach to selling, sales for sales and everything else service. The sales team across the company have been magnificently active on our behalf, in simple terms – getting out there and bringing the orders in. 

“Our service teams have done remarkably well, supporting the growth. Investment in service has been crucial to allowing us to grow. As an example, our Contract Management Team has grown by more than 150 percent in the last 12 months as we anticipate further growth. We have also been improving the look and feel of the facility. Last year, for example, we upgraded the film office complex which is now a much nicer environment. On top of this, investment in machinery and of course the fleet has continued. Our new trucks look absolutely stunning in our new branding.” 

Jim then outlines the company’s bold ambitions for the next five years: “We will exit this year with a £24 million turnover. Within the next five years we are looking to double that, so we want to be a £50 million business by 2030. I have been very lucky in my career or is it simply ‘the harder I work the luckier I become’; each business that I have been involved with has doubled its growth in the first five years of taking up my position. I believe everyone knows how to increase sales. When it fails it tends to be the timing of the investment to support the growth and far too many companies fail here. 

“It’s great to deliver customer excellence, it’s a privilege to be involved with this great business. We know what we need to do to continue our path of growth. We know for example that our existing sales force can take us to £28 million and that another three will get us to £50 million. We will continue growing the service department and infrastructure to support the business as it grows. As complex as some aspects of the business may appear, the bottom line is really very simple. In the five sectors we operate in, we get judged on results. If we do a good job, we get the next project; if we don’t perform, we won’t get the next project. 

“There’s a lot of complexity behind making sure that we do a good job, and a lot of effort to ensure you get that next project, but ultimately, it’s about a few simple things,” Jim concludes. “The main one is investing a little bit in front of expansion. In my experience most business operators tend to invest once they are experiencing growth. That’s too late. Those companies tend to run into service issues, unable to support the business that they have secured. If you just continually invest a little in front of your growth, then you will continue to deliver excellent service and you will therefore continue to grow.”  

richmond-furniture.co.uk