The company has nearly completed a £50,000 contract to supply a range of unusual oak windows and doors for conservation specialist St Blaise.
These are being used as part of a multi-million pound redevelopment of a medieval Devon house into a health spa.
Clifton Joinery has supplied a large oriole window for the development’s ‘Music House’, featuring a curved head with a timber saddle bar. This is turned at an angle to create an aesthetically-pleasing way to make the window secure.
“It is by far the most complicated joinery we’ve done for a long time,” said managing director Chris Duncan, who bought out previous owner Steve Newton in June this year.
Since then, he has been busy building on the company’s strengths: supplying high-specification timber joinery to the quality end of the market.
Mr Newton is now the sales manager, and, according to Mr Duncan “doing a job at which he excels”.
The company recently exhibited a set of oak sliding/folding doors at the 100%Design show at Earls Court, and has been inundated with work as a result, taking a quarter of the previous year’s orders in the space of 10 days.
In September, Clifton Joinery was awarded the Kitemark for its box sash windows, joining an elite band of only 18 companies out of more than 4,000 in the UK with the quality mark.
Mr Duncan said he plans to expand the business, but at a sustainable rate. “It is frustrating to be limited by the supply of skilled craftsmen, but we are only as good as our people, and on that I will not compromise.”
