A conservatory roof, window and doors specialist has secured £1 million in funding to invest in future growth.
James Oliver Conservatories has put more than £250,000 into a new showroom in Crofton Road, Lincoln, and taken on two new apprentices as part of a recruitment drive that has seen employee numbers rise from 35 to 50 since the end of lockdown.
The business is part of the Conservatory Outlet retail network and management said interest was growing in the firm’s product lines, including replacing conservatory roofs with solid roofs, complete living spaces, conservatories, orangeries and individual windows and doors.
General manager Simon Ahearn said: “The last 12 months have been some of our busiest in our 40-year history and we’ve seen orders from all over the region, from the Lincolnshire coast across to Mansfield and parts of north Nottinghamshire.
“Ramping up activity has been a nice, but difficult challenge and we’ve found we need more staff in all parts of the business to make sure we can complete existing projects and deliver new work in timescales the clients are happy with.”
He said the business had taken on a lot of experienced people, but also recognised the need to grow its own staff with apprentices, helped by Lincoln College.
The business was started by James Oliver 40 years ago, who used his joinery background to launch a conservatory company that is now headed up by his two sons Tom and Will Oliver.
The Lincolnshire firm completely transformed its 17,500 sq ft showroom during lockdown to include 14 living space displays, a new specialist lighting centre and the launch of a new indoor furniture range to complement the existing external products, including sofas and dining ranges.
Mr Ahearn said: “Being part of the Conservatory Outlet network of retailers has been instrumental in our growth, giving us lots of external advice, help in creating a 3D walkthrough of our showroom and in industry-leading marketing support.
“The latter has been extremely useful, generating more than 2000 new leads in the last twelve months, many of which have been converted into actual sales.
“This has seen us move from being worried about a potential drop in orders when Covid-19 struck to trying to manage our best ever year.”
Conservatory Outlet chief executive Greg Kane said: “James Oliver is a superb family business, delivering some of the highest quality home improvement projects in the East Midlands.
“The management team embraced our desire to be proactive during the first lockdown and are now reaping the dividends, investing in new staff and, I’m delighted to see, training the fitters of the future.
“It certainly has one eye on the next forty years, and this is reflected in its approach to creating a greener environment through the upgrading of its commercial fleet to all electric vehicles, installing a range of charging facilities at its showroom, and aiming to plant 1,000 trees over the next 12 months.”
