Mark Prince, new managing director of Silverdale Bathrooms, has explained his decision to leave Jacuzzi to set up the new operation.

Speaking exclusively to kbbreview, Prince said Jacuzzi had carried out a review of its business last April and decided to split it in two between hydrotherapy and its "own label" kitchen sinks and baths.

"Sanitaryware wasn't in either of those camps, it was stuck in the middle," he said, "and in the midst of all that, myself and [Jacuzzi marketing director] Dave Tutton offered to take the business off their hands. We were both of the age where we wanted to do something as part of our own business rather than as part of a big corporation."

Under the new company, Prince and Tutton have purchased the BC Sanitan brand from their former employers along with Jacuzzi's ceramics factory in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

"We felt that there was a great opportunity for BC Sanitan to offer a locally made product and a business that offered really local service," Prince said. "There's no more security for employees with us than with Jacuzzi but there is a sense of future which was always uncertain before. But Jacuzzi has been very good to us; it was a fair deal and enables us to realise the assets. We've bought the highest quality sanitaryware plant in the world and, other than Samuel Heath, we're the only bathroom brand that is genuinely all made in the UK.

"We eventually want to grow the business to £7-8 million. Turnover is currently about £3m, we want it to be £4m next year by servicing our customers much better than we have before. It was very low on Jacuzzi's priority list."

Prince admitted Jacuzzi had made mistakes in the past but was now heading in the right direction. "They became a jack of all trades really," he said. "They were trying to be good at everything and ended up being good at not much. But the strategy they're deploying now is absolute right, they're going to around 80 showrooms and majoring on their background in hydrotherapy."