38 business focus
Setting the Benchmark for bespoke furniture
West Berkshire-based furniture maker Benchmark has been a leading supplier of bespoke furniture and specialist joinery to restaurants, hotels, commercial properties, public institutions and high-end residential projects for many years
Renowned for its craftsmanship and design as well as its commitment to sustainability, it works both in the UK and internationally with architects, interior designers and private clients on commercial projects, as well as having its own contemporary furniture range by leading designers.
Sean Sutcliffe and Terence Conran founded Benchmark in 1984 with an ambition to make small production runs of innovative, modern English furniture. On a converted farm near the village of Kintbury, with just three employees, it started making prototypes and small batches of furniture for the Conran Shop and subsequently Heals and then moved into making furniture and fittings for restaurants and hotels after working on some of London’s most talked about restaurants of their day including Bibendum and Quaglinos. Commissions followed for high-profile office projects such as the ‘Gherkin’ and Vodafone World Headquarters as well as public buildings such as the National Gallery, Natural History Museum, the Sage and the Eden Project. Local commissions include The National Trust Headquarters in Swindon, Reading Football
law Commercial property team builds on firm foundations
The commercial property team at Buckinghamshire solicitors B P Collins is going from strength to strength with some powerful client deals under its belt and an ongoing series of events targeted at the commercial property sector.
The group’s work was recently described as “excellent” in the 2011 edition of leading industry guide The Legal 500 and, with the addition of two new faces, the team looks set for further success in the coming months.
Michael Larcombe, partner and practice group leader at B P Collins, said: “We’ve undertaken some great work for top name clients recently, including AMF Bowling and Grundon, and now we’re building on that success and reaching out to the commercial property community to demonstrate the depth of our expertise. We know about the issues that matter to property agents and developers, we understand the topics they are dealing with and we’re here to help, both through our events and
www.businessmag.co.uk Shona Dunning and Gillian Price
newsletters as well as at a one-to- one level.”
The first of the events kicks off on November 9, when the team will be hosting a commercial property seminar entitled “Valuations: it’s all about the money” at B P Collins’ offices in Gerrards Cross.
Designed for commercial property agents, valuers and surveyors who advise on or in connection with service charges and valuations, the seminar will focus on how service charges and dilapidations are valued
and how they can be disputed, as well as looking at some of the different options available to leaseholders.
The event will also include practical negotiation tips to promote a working partnership between tenants and landlords, or their managing agents, plus a question and answer session with the team’s commercial property experts.
It will also be a chance to meet new team members Shona Dunning, who has joined as a senior associate, and associate Gillian Price.
Dunning, who qualified in 2003, has wide-ranging experience across a broad spectrum of commercial and residential property development transactions, with previous clients including charities, businesses, private individuals, property developers and lenders. Her recent work includes the conditional purchase of a listed building subject to planning consent, and the surrender and simultaneous regrant of a commercial lease conditional on planning. She has also lectured on property at the University of Westminster.
Price, who trained at a Lincoln’s Inn firm and also qualified in 2003, has acted for a wide range of clients including institutional landlords, property development companies, retailers, utility companies and high-net-worth individuals. She has particular experience in landlord and tenant law and retail property.
Details for the property seminar:
www.bpcollins.co.uk/seminarslist.php
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – NOVEMBER 2011
Club, and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Details of these and many other projects can be viewed on Benchmark’s website.
Benchmark has 35,000 square feet of workshops for timber milling, carpentry , specialist metalworking and upholstery as well as a full service design studio and furniture showroom. 50 designers and craftsmen are employed and Benchmark run an award-winning apprentice training programme which has enabled them to train their own craftsmen and instil their own values and beliefs.
Large and small commissions are undertaken with the same level of dedication and professionalism.
Details:
www.benchmarkfurniture.com info@benchmarkfurniture.com 01488-658184
Above: National Trust headquarters, Swindon Below: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
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