Mark Hammond and Kieron Bakewell founded naughtone (it means no-nonsense) in 2005 with the mission of designing and manufacturing useful beautiful high quality contract furniture. This they have most certainly done; it’s a remarkable story.
Their furniture is now used by the most influential and globally recognised brands in the world of commerce and culture including Amazon, Google, the BBC and Jaguar Landrover.
The business leveraged a Yorkshire supply chain and inhouse manufacture to ensure rapid new product introduction and global growth. It now produces from an upholstery centre of excellence in Elland and two sites in North American where its sees huge opportunity.
Amongst multiple industry awards throughout its trajectory the business also won the Sunday Times SME Fast Track award in 2017 with a CAGR of 43% and continues to see very aggressive 30% growth. Turnover for FY2020 will achieve £40million with a large proportion coming from export revenue. Its exporting excellence allowed the business to achieve a Queens Award for Enterprise in International Trade in 2019.
The business has remained true to its original intent of creating a business with an environmental and social conscious. Rapid growth requires a rapid, scalable team pulling in a single direction, something naughtone has achieved with impressive staff retention and attraction figures.
In 2019 Herman Miller one of North America’s most prestigious furniture businesses increased its earlier stake acquired in 2016 to fully acquire the balance of the shares. Mark has taken this opportunity to pursue new interests both personally and professionally.
Distributor
Manufacturing
Business Planning
Ecommerce
Exporting
Fast Growth
Innovation
Management Skills
Market Research
Negotiation
Risk & Crisis Management
Sales
