Responsible Manufacturing–What, Why and How We Do It
Let’s be honest. Mass manufacturing of low quality, fast furniture shows no regard for the welfare of the environment. Shipping materials to factories, and products to retailers then again to customers, produces tonnes of CO2 emissions every year. Worse still, this approach is fuelling an economy of quantity and cheapness over quality and true value.
We have developed a healthier way to make the products that people need. We call it global localised manufacture.
This new method cuts the shipping and storage attached to mass produced furniture, bringing waste and emissions right down, and ultimately gives people the option to make a more conscientious choice on how their products are made.
How do we produce furniture?
When a customer pushes ‘order’, a product file is sent to our in-house manufacturing team, who then produce and ship the order. This reactive method uses on-demand manufacturing to make sure that only products that are needed are made. It allows us to optimise waste, track our impact and stay at the forefront of sustainability.
Manufacturing in England
All of our products are made in the UK by our talented makers. We undertake manufacturing in our North-East London workshop which means we can meet the demand of the UK, all whilst keeping manufacturing local.
By producing all of our furniture in the UK, we bring down the mileage of each product substantially, and give customers a way to support UK based manufacturing, suppliers and delivery teams.
We also work with a handful of hardware manufacturers who make small steel and aluminium parts to connect our furniture. These companies are based in Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, and Essex. Just like the rest of our products, our hardware is also produced on-demand. This allows us to develop more responsible solutions for our customers and always keep track of what’s going into our orders.
Plans for the future…
Currently, we source our timber from Europe. Our suppliers in Germany and Latvia meet our criteria for sustainability at a price point that we can afford. As we grow, we hope to decrease our mileage further by working with wood suppliers a bit closer to home.
In time, we’d like to introduce our furniture in different areas, and maybe different countries. By expanding our local manufacturing model to different places, we can make sure that, no matter where our customers are, their furniture has been made locally, benefitting their local economy, and reducing product mileage.
Stay tuned and we’ll be sure to keep you updated on our progress.
