New liverymen and corporate liverymen admitted

We are delighted to admit three liverymen and welcome five corporate liverymen to The Furniture Makers’ Company.

The admission ceremony took place at Furniture Makers’ Hall, London on Tuesday 8 March following the Company’s court meeting.

The members were personally welcomed by David Woodward, Master of The Furniture Makers’ Company, and then invited to join the court of assistants and guests for a black-tie dinner at the hall.

The liverymen admitted were:

Rob Livingstone, operations director at Jay-be

Rob has been involved in the UK bed industry since 2011, working for Hypnos and Silentnight prior to gravitating to our region and Jay-Be at the end of 2020. Jay-be is a manufacturer of mattresses, folding beds and upholstery to both retail and contract customers, and a holder of our prestigious Manufacturing Guild Mark. Rob has been a freeman of the Company since 2019 and during that time he has been a huge supporter of the Yorkshire region, sitting on the committee and supporting events, such as the Yorkshire Curry Night.

Chris Shaw, sales director, Celtheath

Celtheath specialises in upholstery, reupholstery and produce sourcing for 5* hotels, and is also a distributor for furniture retailers and online retailer of upholstery. Chris is a familiar face at Furniture Maker events, having attended for many years with his wife, court assistant Lizzie Shaw, making him the son-in-law of the incumbent Master.

Henry Tadros, director of Ercol

Henry is the great-grandson of Ercol’s founder, Lucian Ercolani, making him the fourth generation of family to work at the business. Henry started at Ercol as a management trainee and has worked across the company in various roles. He has played a major role in developing the company’s business in the UK and worldwide, as well as international residential sales. He was made a director of the business in 2018. He is the son of Past Master Edward Tadros.

The corporate liverymen admitted were:

Sir Anthony Ullmann, chairman and CEO at Shackletons Group Ltd

Having briefly retired in 2017 after more than 40 years as a supplier to the global automotive industry – a very challenging and stimulating international industrial environment – Anthony realised he missed the buzz of commercial life and decided to look for an investment opportunity where he could make a difference. After researching various sectors, he was attracted by healthcare, in particular senior living, and so he acquired Shackletons in 2018 Shackletons is a well-known and long-standing Yorkshire based heritage brand of craftsman made furniture.

Shackletons has been manufacturing handcrafted contract furniture in England for over 60 years. It has built a strong reputation as a premium supplier of upholstered furniture, cabinetry, bespoke joinery and soft furnishings specified for residential care and other commercial environments.

Mark Harrison, finance director and chief operations officer at Shackletons Group Ltd

Mark graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in Actuarial Mathematics in 2014. Upon leaving university he started his career in finance and joined Shackletons, where he also studied for his professional qualifications in accountancy and gained his ACMA designation in 2017. Mark has a broad responsibility over finance and operations within the Group and has been promoted in recent years from finance manager to finance director and chief operations officer.

Michael Clarridge, chief finance officer at Whitemeadow Furniture

Michael career in finance started when he joined Noble Foods Ltd as an accounts administrator aged 18, progressing through all the finance functions prior to qualifying with the ACCA and is now the CFO of Whitemeadow Furniture. Whitemeadow designs, develops, and manufacture high quality sofas and bed frames from their location in Nottinghamshire, where they have been based for the past 28 years. They employ over 650 people, making them one of the largest employers in the area, and have over 300,00 square feet of manufacturing space.

Karen Clarridge, head of group HR at Whitemeadow Furniture

Karen has worked in HR her whole career, starting as a Personnel Assistant for Scottish & Newcastle working predominately in manufacturing but also for a short period working as a consultant where she was introduced to Whitemeadow Furniture in 2011 joining Whitemeadow as HR manager in January 2013. Karen graduated from De Montfort University and is a Chartered Member of the CIPD. Karen is a big advocate of bridging the gap between the world of work and education, recently becoming an Enterprise Advisor, working with a local school in Nottinghamshire. This involves helping support pathways into the furniture industry and helping to shape young people’s futures, working with career leaders and wider senior leaders of the school to create opportunities for young people. In addition, Karen is the Welfare Ambassador for our Heart of England Committee and has been actively supporting the Step 2 it campaign and promoting the charity.

Nicholas Harland-Smith, managing director and co-founder of Handy Ltd

Nicholas is co-founder and managing director of Handy Ltd, which has been supplying and manufacturing components for the bedding and upholstery industries for over 30 years.

Today Handy supplies a range of over 1,500 bedding and upholstery components to hundreds of customers across the UK, Europe and the rest of world.