NEWS

A DESIGN PARTNERSHIP CRAFTED FROM SOLID WOOD

Britain’s oldest chairmaker is helping a new generation of furniture-makers get their ideas off the drawing board and into the marketplace - thanks to an innovative design project.

The Liverpool and Manchester Design Initiative forges links between emerging British design talent and British manufacturing expertise. 

This partnership has proved extremely fruitful for Twenty Four Design Ltd, of Manchester, whose stylish tub chair and coffee table has just gone into production with Preston-based HJ Berry & Sons and will soon be gracing hotels and clubs around the country.

HJ Berry & Sons established their reputation as a maker of quality furniture 165 years ago with their rush chair. This model is still crafted by hand today at the original premises at Kirk Mills in Chipping and has been exhibited in a London museum in celebration of regional chairmaking.

Now headed by the fifth generation of the Berry family, the firm is still at the forefront of furniture design through its links with emerging new talent.

Caroline Hoyle, design manager at HJ Berry & Sons, said: “HJ Berry & Sons work hard to incorporate the latest design principles into their projects. Working with young designers enables us to keep in touch with cutting-edge thinking within the design community.”

Caroline added: “For the past three years, HJ Berry have been bolstering their client base within the hospitality contract sector – mainly within independently owned hotels and restaurants – but this has primarily been with dining tables and chairs.

“While this is a growing sector, we needed to widen our portfolio by offering a comfortable and versatile chair and coffee table for reception areas which was both aesthetically pleasing and could be produced at a highly competitive price. The tub chair and table designed by Twenty Four Design offered us exactly that.”

The Tub 24 and Coffee 25 will be added to the HJ Berry & Sons hospitality furniture brochure for 2006.