The beginning
Started on a bench. Still on a bench.
Thomas Howie began with one joiner, one bench and a short list of neighbours who wanted something better than the chipboard kitchens of the day. Three decades later the list is longer, the workshop a little bigger, and the bench is still where every project begins.
We never grew into a national brand on purpose. Growing meant giving work to someone else to finish, and that was never the point. So we stayed in Southport, kept the team small, and put our name on everything we made.
How we work
No subcontractors. No off-the-shelf units.
Every job is designed, drawn and built in-house. Carcasses are cut and jointed in the workshop, doors and panels are sprayed in our own finishing room, and the same joiners who built your furniture install it in your home.
Nothing is bought in and badged as ours. If a drawer runs rough, we built that drawer and we come back and fix it. That one promise shapes every decision we make.
Southport roots
Rooted on the Sefton coast.
Most of our work is within an hour of Shakespeare Street — Southport, Formby, Birkdale, Ainsdale, Churchtown and across Merseyside. Local work means local accountability. We bump into our customers in the supermarket. That tends to concentrate the mind.