Alstons Upholstery has been awarded a Manufacturing Guild Mark (MGM), available only to the top 50 furniture and furnishing manufacturers in the UK, demonstrating excellence in furniture manufacturing.
The MGM is awarded to companies which meet the highest standards of manufacturing, design, product quality, marketing, finance, commitment to training, employment conditions and sustainability. The Guild Mark schemes are administered by the Furniture Makers’ Company, the City of London livery company and central organisation of the furniture industry. The MGM is the only one awarded to a company, not a product.
Alstons was successfully assessed against the rigorous criteria required for the MGM, independently audited by FIRA on behalf of the Furniture Makers Company. “Alstons is just the sort of company, committed to quality and excellence across all aspects of its business, which we want to achieve a Manufacturing Guild Mark. We’re delighted to welcome them and hope that the award enables them to reinforce the recognition for excellence they already have and deserve,” says the MGM committee chairman, Jessica Alexander.
Alstons Upholstery was founded in the early 1950s and today manufactures 100% of its products in at its base in Colchester, Essex, where around 200 people are employed. Everything bar the fabric is made in house – including the timber frames produced in the company’s own saw mill.
“We have a simple but ambitious philosophy as a company - quite simply, to be the best upholstery supplier to the UK and Irish retail sector,” says operations director Andy Kennaugh. “We are ISO9001 certified; we’re committed to becoming a carbon friendly business; all our timber is FSC certified; we’ve been nominated Supplier of the Year by the retail buying group AIS for 10 years on the trot. To be successfully audited across all aspects of our business and subsequently recognised as one of the top 50 best furniture and furnishing manufacturers in the UK with the Manufacturing Guild Mark award just crystallises all our efforts. We’re delighted.”
