Privately owned upholstery manufacturer Whitemeadow employs over 600 staff across six sites in Nottinghamshire, and prides itself on its ability to meet customers’ evolving quality, style, comfort, colour and texture demands.
“After a turbulent 18 months in the industry, we are very proud to receive this award, voted for by our loyal customers,” begins a Whitemeadow spokesperson. “Whilst having to contend with supply issues, cost increases, longer lead times and Covid-secure production processes, we have ensured that communicating with our customers on a regular basis has taken priority.
“We do, however, believe there is light at the end of the tunnel, and have been busy preparing to secure the future of the business, for our employees and our customers.
“Towards the end of 2020, we secured an additional 145,000 sqft of manufacturing space, and have been steadily increasing output from there over the past five months. The site will be fully operational by October this year, increasing our output capacity by +20%.
“Sustainability has continued to be at the top of our design agenda, and we are due to launch our new independent sustainable range this summer. We continue to seek suppliers that share our environmental ambition of reducing harmful impact on the planet.
“This year also saw the launch of our internal vision and values, with the aim of driving the business forward towards the same goal – ensuring we are our customers’ most trusted upholstery supplier.
“Focusing on the future, we understand the need to draw new people into the industry to fill the skills gap we are all facing, so we are delighted that the new site will become the home of our new Upholstery Academy, following the continued success of our Sewing Academy. We have also been working hard with schools and colleges in our local area to offer open days at our facilities, to educate and attract young people into the industry.
“With no trade shows for over a year, we decided to take matters into our own hands this year and renovated our head office showroom to become an impressive space to showcase our products to customers. The open house show was a great success, and has provided us with the flexibility to offer more of these types of events in the future should we need to.
“Although the last 18 months has been a very challenging period, we believe it has made Whitemeadow stronger, more resilient, and more adaptable to change than ever before, so we can continue to be a trusted partner to our loyal customers.
“On behalf of everyone at Whitemeadow, we thank you for the honour of this award, and we look forward to supporting you in the months and years to come.”
Read about the winners of Furniture News' inaugural Readers' Choice Awards in August's issue.
