Partner Article

Leather firm goes from garage to global

A North East father and son leather care business which started in a garage four years ago is set to expand into the US market, thanks to increasing sales.

Whickham-based Furniture Clinic, run by Keith Staerck and his son, Ben, is bucking the recession trend and is planning a recruitment drive after the creation of the company’s website attracted international clients.

“When my dad started he was selling leather cleaning and repair products to the trade and we started to get requests for one-off products to meet the needs of the client,” said Ben.

“Furniture Clinic has gone from strength to strength and is now the fastest growing company in the leather industry.”

The creation of the website by Ben has doubled turnover each year and online sales are now at £30,000 per month, making a growing contribution to an annual turnover of more than £1m.

The company has outgrown its current premises and plans to move to a larger site in Tyne and Wear in October and is also looking to expand into the US early next year by opening a base in New York.

One North East Director of Business and Industry, Ian Williams, said: “The Furniture Clinic is a real North East success story – a local firm which has succeeded nationally and established an international reputation.

“It has grown year on year and established a string of high profile clients, but remained equally focused on servicing its core customers in the region.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .