Carving out A
T itchmarsh & Goodwin is a long-established Ipswich firm of high-quality furniture makers, who have recently started a new chapter after a management buy out led by company directors Jamie Cooper and Angela Linforth. As they make their plans to take their business forward, Adviser magazine spoke to them about their business, the rollercoaster events of the last few months and their plans for the future. “We have a great heritage” says director Angela Linforth, “Our founder Gordon Goodwin trained at Ipswich College of Art and worked in the design office of furniture maker Frederick Tibbenham before going off to fight in the First World War. Returning injured, Gordon decided he didn’t want to go back to Tibbenhams, but wanted to set up his own company of furniture makers. As he had no finance behind him, Gordon teamed up with his brother-in-law, Frederick Lawrence Titchmarsh, and Titchmarsh & Goodwin was born in May 1920. Initially the workshops were behind Roundwood Farm in Rushmere Road, which is now the site of St John’s Primary School. We moved into our current site in Back Hamlet in March 1924 where the business has remained, and was under the Goodwin family until 2012. Jamie Cooper has been with the company for over a decade working under Peter Goodwin, the last remaining member of the family
actively involved in the business. Jamie was head of design and sales until he took over the day-to-day running of the business about two years ago. In essence Peter was training Jamie to take over from him, however when Peter sold Titchmarsh & Goodwin to the former Russian owner in 2012, Jamie had to take a back seat as the new owners brought in their own management team who made some commercially unsound decisions. Jamie has had to spend the past two years unpicking those mistakes. “I joined the business two years ago on my move back to Suffolk having spent the previous seven years in Bristol as Editor of Homes & Antiques magazine,” says Angela. With a background of more than 15 years in interiors journalism, I have watched many furniture brands build up and have always admired the style and craftsmanship of Titchmarsh & Goodwin. Knowing that I wanted to return to Suffolk, it seemed like an ideal opportunity and I contacted Jamie. We found we both shared the same vision for the direction of the company, which was to do what we’ve always done, to hand-make beautiful traditional furniture which is relevant to modern interiors. I’m passionate about shouting from the rooftops about the quality that we manage to achieve with every piece!” “The production side of the firm has changed very little over the years. Our furniture is still made in the same way that it has always
2 8 | S C R U T T O N B L A N D | B U S I N E S S P R O F I L E
Made with FlippingBook HTML5