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Clive Christian Interiors: Hand-Made To Stand The Test Of Time

Clive Christian Furniture is a Great British Brand 2024

By CTH Editors | 3 months ago

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Clive Christian Interiors is an entry in our Great British Brands 2024 book.

Clive Christian Interiors: Great British Brand 2024

‘Last year was a significant one punctuated by much growth and change. My American-based partner and I took ownership in April 2022 and, as Sales Director previously, I knew the business and its potential inside-out. Being a strong brand is advantageous but also requires significant development. We opened three new showrooms in 2023, including our London flagship townhouse.

At our core there’s a level of craftsmanship that needs a human touch, so it’s not always easy to meet demand. We’re losing skilled craftspeople across disciplines, from joinery to timberwork and marquetry. As a business and workshop, we’re investing in apprenticeship programmes and bringing in new blood, ensuring that older generations pass on and teach their time-honed skills and knowledge to the next.

We appreciate technology plays a role and yes, it has its advantages, but we still need people. Technology is well and good but the person in charge of it needs the personal know-how to get the most out of it. We believe that the marriage between human experience, knowledge and new technology, propels us further to ensure we remain the best at what we do. Automated processes don’t mean we lose touch with our core principles – it enhances them.

Our latest collections, The Garden Kitchen and Opus, demonstrate our dedication to applying new technologies and handcrafted honed skills to design. A Clive Christian room stands the test of time, like The Garden Kitchen, made with stainless steel used on superyachts and with minimal-to- non-existent horizontal lines to repel water residue. Our Opus collection is engineered in an entirely new way by both machine and hand.

As 2024 starts, we’re launching an e-commerce product line. Offering items like chopping boards, larder ladders and serving trays, it will enable audiences to aspire to and connect more widely with our brand without necessarily buying a whole room.’

Phil Cole, Managing Director

Five Proudest Moments

The opening of the first Clive Christian workshop in Bolton in 1978 – the Victoria kitchen is the first to be made.
HRH The Princess Royal’s 2018 visit to the Clive Christian workshop in recognition of our significance in the luxury industry.
Producing The Garden Kitchen, our first-ever outdoor collection, in 2021, expanding the product range to incorporate the entire home.
Launching our first contemporary collection, Opus, in 2022, made to be more sustainable and introduce a new style to the brand.
Opening three major new showrooms in Edinburgh, Los Angeles and our flagship showroom in Kensington in 2023, marking a landmark year.

What I’ve Learnt…

I’m only as strong as my highly motivated, hardworking, passionate team.
Be adaptable and unafraid to pivot or adjust for the betterment of your company, customers and employees.
Foster young talent. As we see a growing shortage of skills, we must do more to re-educate the world about what Clive Christian and the industry generally does.