Championing British manufacturing with British Furniture Manufacturers and The Furniture Makers’ Company membership

A blog by Nick Harland-Smith, managing director of corporate member Handy Ltd

Over the past 12 months Handy Ltd has become a proud member of two trade associations related to the UK upholstery and furniture making industries.

The British Furniture Manufacturers Association (BFM) is a precious resource of information and data. The association is a champion for high quality British made upholstery and as it is part of the British Furniture Confederation (BFC) it becomes a potent pressure group for the industry via press, social media all the way up to the level of government where it lobbies actively.

We are constantly working to develop new product components with UK based producers rather than overseas factories. Aside from supporting UK based jobs, this significantly reduces our carbon footprint.

We are also excited to become Corporate Members of The Furniture Makers’ Company (FMC), the furnishing industry’s charity. The FMC, like the BFM are also members of the wider British Furniture Confederation.

We are delighted to be actively involved with the FMC, a trade organisation that focuses on education and training within our industry as well as supporting excellence in furniture design and construction.

Handy Ltd is actively supporting the FMC’s “One Step at a Time” campaign and we are looking forward to taking an active part in the FMC’s “Step 2 It” campaign which will commence this month.

This is a nationwide fundraising programme aiming to raise £100,000 to further support current and former employees within our industry that have fallen on hard times via welfare grants. I will personally attend the online launch event on the 31st of March.

Of equal importance is the amazing charitable work the FMC involves itself with, providing support grants to employees (both former and current) within the industry that have fallen upon hard times.
Having been a member of the National Bed Federation (NBF) for over 25 years, Handy’s membership of these two stalwarts of the UK furniture industry is long overdue.

We at Handy Ltd consider ourselves privileged suppliers to most of the UK upholstery, furniture and bedding manufacturers. By becoming members of these organisations, we can help amplify and share their important work and are grateful for the business they direct our way.

It is our intention to continue to widen our component product offering to these companies that can state with pride ‘Made in Britain’.

We look forward to becoming actively involved in the wide network of committees and groups that work to improve our industry.

You can find out more about the work of these amazing organisations at https://www.furnituremakers.org.uk/ and http://www.bfm.org.uk/.