Express opens £3.5m showroom and factory in Yorkshire

Express Bi-folding Doors has opened its ‘record-breaking’ showroom in Leeds – The Home Space.

The store features three full-sized show houses and claims to be the largest of its kind in Europe at 27,000sq ft.

A grand opening weekend was held on September 16-17, attended by industry leaders and showroom partners, as well as TV’s Phil Spencer and Dominic Littlewood.

The £3.5 million manufacturing facility and showroom investment is the latest phase of growth for Express Bi-folding Doors and its sister company Express in the Home, which covers a total of 130,000sq ft.

The store features handmade kitchens from Inspired Furniture, based in Northern Ireland, teamed with Next 125 from Schüller and Nobilia.

Appliance partners are Sub-Zero and Wolf, AEG, Liebherr, Miele and Caple, while Blanco is the main sink and tap supplier.

Products are all supplied by local retailer House of Harrogate whose owner Mark Edwards is also managing director of Express in the Home.

“The idea is that someone comes into the showroom looking for bifolding doors initially, which normally means they’re having an extension done or having a house built,” explained Edwards. “If they then see what we’re doing on the kitchen side, we’ll get business off the back of it.

“Because we’ve got the Schüller C range and Next 125 in Harrogate, I would ideally have liked to have put them both in here, but we’ve got another kitchen showroom up the road that supplies Schüller, so we couldn’t do that. So we had to go out and find another company and Nobilia have been fantastic. They’re more contract-based but it suits us. They have a local design team and we’re getting lots of help from them.”

The company hopes the new showroom will reinvigorate the trade market by offering a ‘unique’ experiential location for tradesmen. It also hopes it will enhance its recently launched ‘Express for Trade’ venture, which is aimed at glazing companies, builders, contractors, architects and specifiers.

Steve Bromberg Jnr, general manager of Express, said: “We want The Home Space to be a destination for both consumers and the trade to gather inspiration for their build. We’re confident that Express for Trade will grow as a result of tradespeople visiting the showroom, with The Home Space representing the best of what the market has to offer. By forging excellent trade partnerships across the UK, we’re hoping to raise the industry standard even further, offering designated partners exclusive benefits.”

Pictured left to right: Steve Bromberg Snr, Phil Spencer, Caroline and Mark Edwards (MD Express in the Home) and Steve Bromberg Jnr

  • For the full interview with Mark Edwards and Steve Bromberg, see the December issue of kbbreview
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