There’s no sitting down on the job for Tom Obbard.
The 39-year-old owner of Mirfield-based Furniture Choice has worked hard to build up a business employing 26 people in the UK and a team of four in Malaysia. And more jobs are in the pipeline as the company bids to expand further this year.
Tom, who lives at Birkby, hails from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire and worked for a number of years in Slough, close to Heathrow Airport, as a manager with online giant Amazon.
He later worked for two years as e-commerce manager with famed upmarket furniture retailer Heals – making a daily commute to its landmark store at Tottenham Court Road in London.
But he says: “I always wanted to run my own business. My brother, who lives in the Far East, had come over to the UK to visit and as I was driving him back to the airport I explained that I wanted to do my own thing.
“He is a furniture manufacturer out in the Far East, so with his encouragement I went ahead and set up the business.
“I had to continue working full-time at Heals, but at weekends and evenings I was working to set up Furniture Choice.”
When it came time to find premises, Tom took the advice of his operations manager, who lives at Ossett, and looked no further than Kirklees. “We needed to find premises somewhere with good transport links,” he says.
“Because furniture is big and bulky, we needed a lot of warehousing. The warehousing here is good value compared to the prices for premises around Heathrow, so we moved up north.”
Now the company has more than 100,000sq ft of warehousing – with two warehouses, its offices and a showroom at Bankfield Business Park on Huddersfield Road in Mirfield and two further warehouses at Heckmondwike.
Says Tom: “When I started the business it was just me and I had to do everything. I have answered the phone, made calls to customers, done the marketing and shifted the stock. My wife Anna was working at Selfridges in London and she cut her working hours so she could help me.”
Now firmly established at Mirfield for the past five years, Furniture Choice sources its products from trusted manufacturers in the Far East, specialising in dining sets, sofas and mattresses, but covering a range of dining, living room and bedroom furniture.
“We are focused on quality, service and value,” says Tom. “We sell to the consumer as well as businesses needing things like reception seating.”
Despite the geographical distances involved, Tom says: “We are close to our manufacturers. It’s crucial that we have a good relationship with them. It can be difficult, but if you make the effort and invest in having staff on the ground you can overcome the quality issues that people associate with sourcing from the Far East.
“We have a full-time quality manager who visits the factories to check on stock.
“We visit the factories to find the products we like and before we order anything our quality manager goes and does a factory audit to make sure they have the right standards.
“We get samples made up, check them, check the packaging and when the product comes to the UK we do a final check here to make sure we are happy before we commit to ordering stock.”
The company has ridden out the recession, says Tom, adding: “It has actually provided an opportunity for us because people have been prepared to consider buying from us because we were an unknown brand.
“Today, there are fewer competitors around because some of them went to the wall during the recession, but those that are still around, especially the big name retailers, mean it is highly competitive.
“Now we are increasing our product range, increasing the size of our sourcing team in the Far East as well as our buying team in the UK, our customer service department and our web team. There will be a lot more focus on new categories as ‘businesses within the businesses’.”
While 95% of business is done online, Tom says having a “bricks and mortar” store at Bankfield Business Park “reassures customers that we are not selling from a bedroom!”
Tom attends trade shows in the Far East – but a couple of days based in hotels and conference centres doesn’t leave much time to get to know the countries, their cultures and people.
“I went on a buying trip two years ago and visited Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Singapore,” he says. “I was there for just a few days. That was an experience, but it would have been nice to spend more time out there.”
Tom is now firmly rooted in Yorkshire. His wife is also in business as owner of Czar men’s hairdressers in Huddersfield’s Imperial Arcade while seven-year-old son Maks attends a local school. “I get ribbed about the way I pronounce words incorrectly – or should I say correctly,” jokes Tom.
And he has no regrets about setting up his own business. “Running your own business is a lot of hard work, but there are benefits,” he says. “I am my own boss and I am in control of where we go as a company.
“When you’re working for someone else, you can’t always achieve what you set out to achieve because you are held back by other people in the business or by people taking the business in a different direction.”
Says Tom: “I like spending time with the family. We like going out for a meal and I enjoy running – which is one of the ways I like to blast away the stress.
“Even in cold weather it is quite fun. You do need that stress release. You need some way of taking your mind off work.
“I try to go for a run about three times a week – but that has been difficult this month because we have had our team over from Malaysia. That means meetings and meals out in the evenings!
“The quality control manager will come over to speak to our customer services team to get feedback on any issues they have. He is also able to let them know about new products coming on board and speaks to the warehouse teams about packaging issues.
“It’s nice to get everybody involved and we make a friendly team.”
Role: Owner and managing director
Age: 39
Family: Married to Anna with son
Maks, seven
Car: Jaguar XF
Holidays: I combine holidays with business trips. I love going anywhere in Asia, which is a fantastic part of the world
First job: Bob-a-job with the Cubs and later working as a kitchen porter
Best thing about the job? I love working with a great team of people. You can’t do everything yourself. You have to have the right people in place
Worst thing about the job? I hate the admin! It feels so unproductive
Business tip: Work hard and enjoy the moments you have away from work. When I was working seven days a week to get the business going, any time off felt brilliant. Remember, you are working hard for a reason
Work: Furniture retailer
Site: Bankfield Business Park,
Huddersfield Road, Mirfield
Phone: 0800 0350070
Email: info@furniturechoice.co.uk
