Member Spotlight: Roger Richardson

In the second of our Member Spotlights, we ask Roger Richardson, Past Master and Company Archivist, some questions about his career.

What first inspired you to want to pursue a career in the furnishings sector?

My grandfather started the firm and my father succeeded him in what, through the series of accidental happenings and bits of luck which every new business encounters, became a furniture manufacturer, Beaver & Tapley Ltd. I had been interested since childhood and it seemed just natural to make it my career.

How did you first get involved with The Furniture Makers’ Company?

I joined the family business in 1956. My father and I were fully aware of the Furniture Makers through friends and relations and by 1961 I felt it was time to join.

Who is/was your design hero?

Robert Heritage. He was our designer during the sixties and the early seventies. Without his ingenuity, his aesthetic and adherence to a brief, B&T would not have succeeded in changing from selling solely on price to selling on design – high quality furniture but also with a built-in unique practicality.

What do you see as the benefits of being involved in The Furniture Makers’ Company?

First and foremost, networking. Meeting other Liverymen taught me that retailers were human and could even become friends. However, really to get to know members, one needs to be on a committee. I was fortunate to be asked to join a committee only a few years after I joined the Company and I have been on nearly every one before or after being invited to join the Court. Then to have been the Master of such a vigorous and successful Company was a huge privilege and enormously enjoyable.

What is your favourite thing about the furnishings sector?

To see it, albeit only slowly, changing from selling on price to selling on design.