COMMENT AND OPINION | Robert Charles
ROBERT CHARLES OPINION
The designer, manufacturer and director of the Robert Charles kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms company in Taunton, looks back over a 50-year career in this “fascinating” but fast-moving industry
Everything changes I
started out in the kitchen industry in 1972, taking over our small family business, The White Wood Shop, after my father, Richard
Charles, suffered a stroke. I’d just turned 18 and our five employees at the time were all over 50. I shudder to think what they thought of this young whippersnapper taking over the business. But to be fair to them, they all supported me, and we survived to tell the tale.
When I took over the business, we were primarily selling furniture and kitchens made in what was known then as “whitewood furniture”. It was the budget furniture of its era, post-Second World War through to the early 1970s. Then, melamine-faced board, MFI, and flat-pack kitchens all arrived. Whitewood furniture disappeared within a couple of years. Along with several other whitewood manufacturers, we moved into kitchens on a much more involved
basis.
Over such a long career, there have been many innovations,
progress and developments
Companies such as Winchmore, Liden and Solent led the way. Most, if not all, of these companies eventually disappeared. In early 1974, the Government was forced, by striking miners, to introduce the ‘three-day week’. We were only allowed electricity on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The opposite side of the street had electricity on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Amazingly there were reports of companies achieving higher output in three days than had previously been achieved during the normal working week. Sales, however, were a different matter. Trying to design and sell kitchens in pitch darkness just wasn’t possible. Of course, in those days we didn’t have any of the technology that we have today. Everything was drawn by hand.
Interest rates
Through the 80s, business boomed and we built the business up to five showrooms, with 27 staff and a contracts division.
By 1989, the base bank interest rate had reached 15%. I can’t recall exact figures, but we would have been paying something like 18% interest on our overdraft. This move wiped out businesses by the thousand. Many, many kitchen companies went to the wall. Negative equity was rife, and many homeowners were just handing back the keys to properties they could no longer afford. We survived – by the skin of our teeth – but by 1991 the business looked very different. We ended up with one showroom and one member of staff. There wasn’t a penny of government help in those days. These days, the business is known as Robert Charles, which I run with a small, highly skilled team producing high-quality, bespoke kitchens.
The operation – showroom, design, sales, manufacturing, finishing – is all under one roof. It’s
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manageable and compact. Over such a long career there have been many innovations, progress and developments. It will seem very unreal to most in the industry today, but I can recall the introduction of many products that we now all take for granted, such as inset sinks, granite worktops, ceramic hobs, underslung sinks, composite worktops and sinks, pyrolytic ovens, soft close drawers and doors, induction hobs, hot taps and many more. Where would all be without our mobile phones, computers, and of course, the internet? When I joined the business in 1972, the only item of technology we had was a landline telephone. We didn’t even have a calculator, or “adding machine” as they were called in those days. Our first calculator - that only added, subtracted, multiplied, and divided - cost us about £75 in 1972. That’s about £530 in today’s money. Our first fax machine, purchased around 1980, cost in the region of £1,500, which would be nearly £5,000 today. How things have moved forward in such a relatively short space of time. I still aim to get out to as many exhibitions as I can
and, whenever I do, I’m truly buoyed by the enthusiasm and attendance. Although it has been a very testing few years for the industry, I feel like we are in good health moving into 2024.
On a personal note, I’m busily trying to retire from this fascinating industry, but I’m finding it very complicated with business stronger than I’ve ever experienced. For us, demand has never been greater, so I guess we’re doing something right.
• November 2023
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