Fresh Hotel Furnishings is a brand that delivers end-to-end furnishing solutions. Paul Inman, Managing at Fresh Contract Furnishings shares how they launched and successfully deliver bespoke furnishing products to their customers.
We work with all types of hotels, apartments and student accommodation, as well as the UK’s leading interior designers,” says Inman. Our bywords are quality and cost-effectiveness, which enable our customers to achieve genuine value for their hard-earned money and enhance the experience that they deliver to their customers.
Why and how was Fresh Hotel Furnishings launched?
We wanted to create a business that worked closely with each customer in terms of budget, understanding their individual requirements and bringing their ideas to life. We always felt that there was a gap in the hospitality market for high quality, bespoke soft furnishings, furniture, filled products and linens at exceptional value. It is this goal that has driven us from the very start, and over time we made it our aim to become recognised as a leading ‘one stop shop’ provider to hospitality businesses nationwide.
What have been your biggest success factors?
Seeing this business grow has been a genuine privilege, and we are proud to have worked with some amazing people during the last 8 years. The people we have met have been central to our journey, as has the quality of our work and the levels of customer satisfaction that we have achieved.
‘The Fresh Approach’, as we like to call it, is also at the heart of everything that we do. After all, it is this that drives the unique and creative nature of our service, which is delivered to an exceptional standard that offers the very best value. This visionary approach also helps our customers at every stage of their journey with us, as we manage everything from budgeting and initial design right through to installation and aftercare.
Without this, it would be impossible to achieve our vision of creating bespoke and functional spaces that help our customers achieve their own objectives. Above all else, the foundations of our success have been built on honesty and integrity, which underpin long-term relationships with customers that we understand.
What are the biggest challenges you have faced launching and running the company?
From the outset, one of the biggest challenges was creating the type of service that we wanted to offer while ensuring that it was cost-effective. After all, designing and creating bespoke furnishings is far more cost and labour intensive than delivering mass-produced products, and we needed to make sure that our business was profitable and sustainable over time.
Ultimately, we achieved this by focusing on value rather than the bottom line cost to our customers, by developing the unique selling points of the service and the quality of delivery. This way, we could set a fair and viable price that offered tangible value to clients, while also ensuring that we could make a small profit.
Which do you think is most important: the right market, the right product, or the right team?
All three are crucial, don’t you think? Sure, one of these may well command your focus at any given time, but the truth is that no business can sustain itself in a competitive space without being able to deliver the right product at the right price into the relevant marketplace. Initially, we spent a great deal of time and capital developing our bespoke service and recruiting the right team, as these were the single most important elements of our brand’s identity.
When the time came to expand into new markets, we needed to focus on choosing the right option and making sure that we could effectively target a potential audience with our service. Then comes the process of adapting your products and delivery methods to suit a new client base, which continues a cycle of creating the ideal value proposition for each individual customer.
Any Final words for those chasing the startup dream?
While hard work and determination are key to any entrepreneurial success story, you probably knew that already! Beyond this, it is crucial that you have a clear vision for what you want your business to achieve, and a unique selling point or value proposition that can help you to gain leverage in your chosen market.
While you may be dealing with a concept that you are passionate about, you must maintain a clear business mind-set which informs your decisions. Also, try not to expand your business too quickly. Instead, you should strive to achieve organic growth over time, making sure that you have the right product. and value proposition to succeed in potential markets.
