Neatsmith: Fine, Bespoke Wardrobes, Offices and Living Rooms by a Leading Family Firm

Neatsmith is an entry in our Great British Brands 2024 book. 

Neatsmith: Great British Brand 2024

‘My father, brother and I started Neatsmith almost 20 years ago, going door to door with our samples and our brochures. We now have six showrooms spread across London and the Southeast and a 50,000 sq/ft manufacturing facility in Watford. We owe our success to selling an excellent product, designed and manufactured by excellent people, who deliver excellent service. All of our staff are full time employees – this is the only way we can make sure they share and deliver our Neatsmith standards.

A large number of our clients are referrals. When people have seen the product and experienced the full Neatsmith service, from first contact to final installation, they become our biggest cheerleaders. We’re not a big corporate firm and even though we have over 80 staff Neatsmith is still very much run as a family business – our aim is to enhance people’s homes and make them look lovely and that requires warmth and intuition.

We are firm believers in face-to-face contact and that is why we will be opening more showrooms in the future – nothing beats seeing the product in the flesh and having a knowledgeable Neatsmith designer on hand to turn your ideas into reality.

As much as we embrace new manufacturing and design technology, you aren’t likely to encounter a Neatsmith chatbot anytime soon – when you ring Neatsmith a human answers the phone, and this won’t ever change.

Similarly, I am not convinced that AI is the right content provider for us. Whilst we use it in a limited capacity to collate information, AI can never tell the Neatsmith story, which is about the love we and our teams put into our job – AI cannot communicate the soul of our business.’

Philipp Nagel, Director

Five Proudest Moments

1. Receiving our first positive and unsolicited online review in 2006. We tried to be cool and nonchalant about it, but it really did make our year.

2. Being featured in Great British Brands in 2015. The whole team felt incredibly proud.

3. Opening our flagship store on the King’s Road in 2018. Ten years earlier we were in a converted garage in Tottenham, so it was a big moment for us.

4. Thomas, our first apprentice fitter, graduating in 2019. He is now well established within the team and has since been joined by four more Neatsmith-fitting graduates.

5. Not a moment per se, but an on-going achievement. Everyone in the company is still a full-time Neatsmith employee. We never sub-contract our fitting or design.

What I’ve Learnt

• People buy from people but you need excellent products, and the service and processes to deliver what you promised. 
• Design is exciting. Don’t rely on the same formula. Innovation is ongoing. Keep up. 
• People are everything and, despite what we’re told, are not dispensable. Show them how much you value them.

NEATSMITH

544 King’s Rd, London SW10 0UB

+44 (0)20 8017 3909

neatsmith.co.uk

@neatsmith