Beautiful Kitchens, Designed for Life
’m William Toon and I’m the owner and managing director of Kitchen Craft Design. My role is to really look at where the company is going in the future and making sure that we still maintain profitability as well as expanding.
I actually took it over from my father, who unfortunately passed away in 2020, but I took over in 2013 and there was probably up to a year where neither of us were sure who was in charge!
Kitchen Craft at that time had three or four staff. I’d had previous businesses, but the recession and bits and bobs took their toll on them.
From Local Family Business to Five Showrooms
We started with myself, Tracy, who was our company secretary, two designers, and a part-time delivery lad. We had half of this showroom, a 2,000 square foot showroom with a little bit of warehousing across the road, and we grew it quite quickly.
I was really excited about it and was able to work all the hours and all that stuff—from selling the kitchens, to designing the kitchens, to delivering the kitchens and helping out on everything. There was no excess, no fat.
We opened up seven days a week and I was working seven days a week, but at 23, 24, you could work every hour, go in and not have any responsibilities. We grew and we grew, and it became this showroom as you see it now, effectively from about 2016.
Working with Gravitate
It’s been fantastic. We’ve had around two full years with Gravitate now, and it’s worked out incredibly well.
Not only do they look after Kitchen Craft Design, but they also look after the three other businesses that we have – Toon Properties for the property work that we do, or our new kitchen showroom called Peak Kitchens in Bakewell.
Nothing’s too much, really. I can ring Tom at five o’clock and he’ll answer, or he’ll ring me back. It’s stuff like that I think I previously missed out on. I didn’t have that relationship with my previous accountant.
Other accountants might do the jobs that you ask them to do, but they don’t do the stuff that you’re not asking them to do.
And that is really critical as a business owner, because you are so busy running your own business. You’re in your own little world. But you do need that backup to advise and help you with things. That can be very critical to the business.
