If you’re sitting on a UK-made office chair while you read this, chances are that the preformed plywood seat and back were made by Stonebridge UK Ltd.
The company specialises in producing curved wooden components and assembled chair and soft seating frames. Its portfolio covers the more prosaic – preformed plywood seat and back panels for train refurbishments – through to the Simon Pengelly-designed table which won the Production Made category in last year’s Wood Awards.
Like many companies in the UK furniture sector, however, Stonebridge has had to evolve with the times.
The Oxfordshire-based family business began as a joinery company 70 years ago but today it is a specialist in preformed wood components, manufactured at its factory in Slovakia and assembled at its base in Thame, Oxfordshire.
“As a business we’ve never stood still. We gear up for one thing then adapt as circumstances change,” said joint managing director John Green.
John’s grandfather founded the company as Stonebridge Joinery Works Ltd in 1947. When John’s father Les joined the business after his tool-making apprenticeship the company’s main focus was still joinery but it was subsidising that work by making solid hardwood chair frames for a Watford furniture maker.
“They asked my father what he knew about preformed plywood, which was not a lot and he had six months to find out,” said John.
The preformed plywood side gradually took over the business and by 2000 Stonebridge was the UK’s largest manufacturer of preformed plywood components, supplying most of the UK’s chair manufacturers.
In 2004 the joinery reference was dropped from the company name, and in 2006 Stonebridge UK Ltd moved to a purpose-built factory in Bicester.
And then the global financial crisis hit. “When the recession hit in 2008 a lot of our customers went out of business or were taken over because they were producing much the same thing, and it was all down to price,” said John.
At the same time cheap imports from eastern Europe and the Far East were providing unrealistic competition. The vast majority of Stonebridge’s work is for the office furniture industry, and with outlets such as Office World selling office chairs alongside ballpoint pens and staplers, the family had to rethink the business.
“During the 1970s and 80s we did a lot of assembly work but then we stopped to focus on the preformed plywood side. It was only when the recession hit we realised we needed to look for other avenues,” said John.
During the recession Stonebridge’s turnover fell by nearly 40% in six months. “All I was being asked for was price reductions because my customers were facing the same recession, and they could take their business to eastern Europe,” he said.
“We noticed that our customers that were doing well were those who had taken on their own identity, taken on their own designers and become much more design led. The lower end of the market was buying components or finished product from China and the Far East and you just can’t compete with that.”
Fortunately five years earlier, in 2003, after consultation with a Slovakian former employee, Stonebridge had started to manufacture its Shannon 8000 seat in Slovakia. It established Greenform, a wholly owned subsidiary, and set up a 60,000ft2 manufacturing facility on a 25-acre site in Hlinné in the east of the country.
This serendipitous move provided some resilience against the recession. Gradually more and more production was moved to Slovakia and UK production finished in late 2015 when the fifth of Stonebridge’s 5-axis CNC machines was shipped to the Greenform factory.
“We didn’t intend to stop manufacturing in the UK,” said John. “Our initial plan was to make volume products in Slovakia, and the design and development and smaller lines would continue to run in the UK.
“We were very fortunate we had developed the Slovakian factory because in 2008, had we not had it, we probably would have had to subcontract work.”
The move wasn’t without its challenges, however.
“Because Greenform is a wholly-owned UK subsidiary we can’t borrow any money in Slovakia so it has to be funded through the UK – which wasn’t great when we were suddenly hit with a recession,” said John.
As a UK manufacturing facility was no longer needed, last year the company moved its UK office and assembly set-up from Bicester to smaller premises in Thame. Today Stonebridge has 12 employees in Thame and 66 in Slovakia.
The components may now be manufactured more than 1,200 miles away from Stonebridge’s UK base but John and his brother and joint managing director Peter can have an eye – literally – on every part of the process. Cameras around the factory relay real-time images back to screens on the walls of the Thame offices so the UK team can identify any production problems.
“It allows us to see what’s happening on an hourly basis so we can see any problems,” said John.
The CNC machines are also programmed from the UK.
All the components are manufactured, finished and lacquered in Slovakia and then sent to Thame for assembly. Despite the distance between the two bases, Stonebridge offers a competitive three to four-week lead time from order placement to delivery – and that includes the three-day journey the orders make from Slovakia to Thame.
“Most of our European competitors are on 6, 8 or 10-week lead times. We achieve our shorter lead times through real efficiencies, scheduling and planning and making sure everybody knows what they’re doing,” said John.
Another advantage is that Stonebridge doesn’t peel its own logs but buys all its rotary-cut veneer in stock sizes.
“That gives us flexibility and allows us to provide short lead times and do small quantities,” said John.
The bulk of its raw material is FSC certified beech veneer and birch plywood, smaller volumes of MDF, and decorative veneers.
“Our Slovakian factory is well situated because it’s near the Ukraine and Polish borders, so we’re close to our raw material.
We use a lot of ply and veneer from Ukraine and our beech comes from Germany and Slovakia which we collect on the way back empty from the UK,” said John.
Until the late 1990s Stonebridge offered a complete design service but now it provides advice on clients’ designs, recommending materials and best cost options.
“We don’t design a product to take to market. We work with designers or a company’s in-house designer and in that respect it’s much easier to be in at the beginning of a project so we can advise from the outset,” said John.
Once such project is the elegant extending table, designed by Simon Pengelly, which won the Production Made category in last year’s Wood Awards.
Stonebridge was happy to produce the table but making the solid aluminium tooling was going to be a costly £25,000.
“We proposed a cheaper tool that would only be able to do a small volume but if it was enough to get it into production then it could prove the table was viable,” said John.
He admits they weren’t sure the table could be produced because it was “pushing the odds” and he oversaw the project very closely, travelling to Slovakia twice a month. While there were some problems, they weren’t insurmountable.
“The real difficulty was the apron return on either side. It was difficult to form and to machine,” said John.
The table has received a lot of interest and Stonebridge would be happy to put it into production.
“It’s just up to them to press the button and start placing orders,” John said. The Pengelly table is an example of how Stonebridge is always looking for new designs and new materials – it’s started using honeycomb door cores to reduce the weight in curved panels – and CNC technology has enabled it to expand its capabilities.
“We’re now producing screens, large 2-3 seater sofas, meetings chairs, and kitchen doors in MDF,” said John, adding that it also produces bath trays for British luxury bath brand Victoria & Albert.
These trays accompany the baths to export markets in New York, Dubai and South Africa and John sees no reason why Stonebridge’s other products shouldn’t reach a wider market than the current UK customer base.
“We’ve gone through a transition, having to transfer the factory to Slovakia. We’re now ready to grow again and we’d like to expand globally,” said John.
This year Stonebridge was on course for 3% growth until business eased off with the announcement of the general election. With that now out of the way John is hoping things will settle down again. Although Brexit is creating some uncertainty, he is optimistic that the outcome will have little impact on the company or its European workforce.
In the meantime, he is more than happy that Stonebridge weathered the recession and what was the most challenging time in its 70- year history, and is now ready for growth.
“We have a lovely manufacturing facility in Slovakia, we’ve gone through a consolidation period and now we’re ready to start supplying a larger audience.”
