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been flying out of the workshops. Sales for this piece have increased by more than 350 per cent in the year following the photograph,” says Angela. “However, we’ve had a turbulent couple of years,” says Jamie. “By the end of 2015 we could see that our Russian owner was losing interest in the business and might be amenable to an offer to buy Titchmarsh & Goodwin from him. Angela and I could see that there was potentially a good sustainable business and we could see the green shoots of a recovery in the company’s fortunes both in terms of sales and costs and as we shared a vision for its future, we decided to go for it. I’m not sure we could have ever predicted how long and complicated the process would be though! “If I had any advice to give someone thinking about undertaking a management buy out (MBO) it would be to make sure you get the right team around you,” explains Jamie. “All three of our external MBO professional advisers (Scrutton Bland, NatWest and Birkett’s) were absolutely vital. Firstly Sue Gull and the team at Scrutton Bland worked extremely closely with us to produce a viable and up-to-date set of figures which we needed to get bank funding. NatWest were central in that they gave us a commercial mortgage, and Birkett’s were indispensable in drawing up our legal agreement, which was hugely
been, using the same woods and the same methods as Titchmarsh & Goodwin did almost a hundred years ago,” says Jamie. “Much of the oak and walnut that we use is sourced locally and we still hand- polish our furniture in the same way that furniture has been polished for centuries. The designs today are also not dissimilar to the pieces that we have always produced. “However, in terms of sales we have, and are undergoing, a massive transition. In the past we sold our pieces through a vast network of shops up and down the country. During the recession of 2009 a lot of these furniture shops either went out of business or started stocking cheaper imports. We now sell a lot more furniture directly which means that we need an excellent website with good photography. It also means that our customers can get a much better deal!” The company has a stellar customer list which has included President Lyndon Johnson, Princess Margaret, the Turkish Embassy, the King of Norway and the Riyadh Palace in Saudi Arabia. “We recently made an absolutely enormous bed for 12 for a Russian client, and we’ve just designed and made a beautiful plant stand with the Dowager Duchess of Bedford One of our bestselling pieces is our dresser base, but interestingly, since we photographed it on location, our natural oak refectory table has
B U S I N E S S P R O F I L E | S C R U T T O N B L A N D | 2 9
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