This month sees the launch of espokeliving.com a brand new site and a brand new furniture business that has been born out of the collaboration between manufacturing and marketing.
The site uses an innovative web based technology to allow visitors to customise their furniture, changing fabric styles and colours and then being able to rotate and zoom into the image to see their creation in more detail. The Espoke Living site is the only furniture site in the UK that has this technology, giving their customers an enhanced buying experience.
All of the Espoke furniture is then hand made in a traditional manufacturing facility in Lancashire, by time served craftsmen and then white glove delivered to the customer by the Espoke installation team. This dedication to UK manufacture led them to be awarded the ‘Made in Britain mark’.
Founding Partner Aqeel Ahmed commented: “It was important to us that the customers get a great buying experience and this starts with the website and continues through to the furniture being expertly delivered by our own team.”
The collaboration that has formed Espoke Living as a business is a story in itself, with the four partners bringing their own skill set to the party. It started when furniture manufacturers Faisal Akbar and Aqeel Ahmed joined forces with Cheshire based marketing team, Ken Davies and Nathan Pearson. They discussed the idea of a new business selling quality furniture, hand made in the UK, direct to the public, so cutting out the middleman to the benefit of their customers.
Faisal said: “This union is distinct because both the marketing and manufacturing teams are all partners in the business, therefore we all have a vested interest in making the Espoke brand the premier producer of quality furniture in the UK.”
Faisal and Aqeel bring over 25 years of manufacturing experience to the project and a manufacturing base in the heart of Lancashire. Nathan and Ken bring both traditional and digital marketing expertise and a background that includes creating the famous Hippo and Duck campaign for Silentnight.
Nathan commented: “The guys already knew how to make an elite product and deliver great customer service, but they weren’t selling direct to the public and that was a piece of the jigsaw that was missing.”
The skills and entrepreneurship within the team have helped to keep the start-up costs of the business below £150,000.
Having launched only last week, the company is already fulfilling orders and recently sponsored two awards at the prestigious Asian Media Awards in The Hilton, Manchester.
Ken Davies said: “It’s an amazing experience to be client and agency rolled into one. You feel totally invested in any campaigns we produce”.
The company is already working on version two of the site that will add even more advanced tech and will further wow potential customers. They also have plans to talk to major retailers to demonstrate how they can utilise the Espoke technology and fulfilment platform.
