We are a family run, kitchen and bedroom manufacturer and retailer that have been going for 25 years. Including me, there are three of us who work in the showroom, then we employ four people in our factory and two fitters.

My younger brother Keith is one of the fitters, my wife Sheila takes care of all of the accounts, and my son Matthew does all of the CAD designs and the operational side.  I'm just in the background really, overseeing everything.

The showroom is situated on a high street just slightly out of town, in an old Co-op (supermarket) building. It's a double fronted shop with big glass windows and a central doorway, with Tudor beams along the ceiling. It's a one level showroom with nine kitchen and seven bedroom displays, all set in their own separate rooms. I'd say it's about 1200 sq ft and the factory's around 3,000 sq ft.

We open every day except Wednesday and Sunday, opening at 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. We don't get many customers actually visiting the showroom, because most of our business is conducted over the phone and followed up by home visits, but at any one time we could have two couples looking round.

Most mornings, the first thing I do is to visit my factory. First of all I spend time briefing the fitters, who are in charge of fitting the job scheduled in for that day. I like to tell them everything I think they might need to know. What to expect from the job, in terms of the type of people they are dealing with, details of the brief they have given me, and answer any questions the fitters might have for me, just to make sure we are all singing from the same hymn sheet, so to speak.

Then I meet with my factory foreman to go through the job's due to be made that day and the next. I leave the factory at around 10 a.m. and head back to the showroom where I start designing any outstanding projects that I have measured.

I do home visits where I sit down with the customer and go through exactly what they want from their new kitchen or bedroom. Once I'm clear on the details I measure up the room. I spend no longer than about 20 minutes on each visit, its all I the time I need. 

I design the kitchen or bedroom by hand and then my son takes over. He creates a 3d drawing for the client, based on the measurements and my original design, using a CAD computer system.  The next step is to send this drawing direct to the customer with a breakdown of costs.

If they want to continue with the job, they make an appointment to come in to the showroom to talk through the project in more detail. This appointment is where we discuss the finer points like colours, worktops, doors, handles and appliances. Once the extras have been decided upon we make plans to remove their old kitchen or bedroom and carry out essential electrical and plumbing work. We really do organise it all from start to finish.

We aim at the middle of the market, with an average kitchen costing between £6,000 and £8,000 and a bedroom anywhere from £2,500 to £4,000, there or thereabouts. We manufacture a lot of our kitchen and bedroom furniture but some of the solid wood doors, are supplied by other companies. We stock appliances from Hotpoint, Neff and Whirlpool, and any appliance that somebody may ask for really, as everybody has different preferences when it comes to appliances.

We always have plenty of work on so I don't see the need to do a great deal of advertising, but we do advertise in our local newspaper and have advertised on a local radio station in the past. I think getting a successful business lead through a customer recommendation is a far better advert, and much more satisfying.  I would say that 90% of our business comes through customer recommendations.

Our customers tend to use us for both their kitchen and bedroom fittings, but not necessarily at the same time, over a period of years. I have fitted five kitchens and fifteen bedrooms for a certain lady customer, over the years. Every time she moved house, she has came to us for all of the fittings. My diary is full of repeat business.

It's always a fifty-fifty split between kitchen and bedroom fittings. Tomorrow for example, I have four measuring appointments and three of them are bedrooms. You can't predict what is going to happen, everyday is different.

There are one or two other showrooms in the area, but we've been going 25 years and are well established with a big loyal customer base, so although they are competition it doesn't really affect our business.

Business is alright, but that's because we've been in business for so long and we own our factory and the showroom, so we don't pay any rent and don't have any bank loans or anything. I think that anybody new to the trade, with bank loans etc, could be suffering a little because there is a slight downturn in trade.

My long-term target for the business is just for my son to continue with the business, doing what I have done for the past 25 years.

When I'm not working I like to play golf. I don't get to play often though, only on a Wednesday when the showroom is closed. I have a handicap of nine, which isn't bad. My brother Keith plays golf with me too and I like to take part in the occasional pub quiz.