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No ordinary desks, no ordinary designs, no ordinary children!
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How it all began .....
In very short order and armed with some basic drawings and designs, we decided to go out and get two local cabinet makers to build what we were looking for. We wanted two desk and chair sets that looked classy and elegant and would stand the test of time. These products would be built specifically for use by our daughter of five years and our son who was two at the time.
Whilst we were pretty specific about what we wanted our carpenters to make for us - and we had a good idea of what the finished products should look like - we allowed them some artistic license to see what we would get. The resulting desks, whilst being fairly basic, were quite nice and solidly built. To this day, my daughter has the larger desk set and the smaller one has been used by my son.
From the first time that we began looking for this product, we also thought about who else might want one. Although the ones we had built were specifically for our family members, all the while we wondered about the possibility of building something like this and bringing it to the market. Surely we could not be the only ones looking for a product like this? We were unsure about the whole thing but we went ahead and created Kidzdeskz Limited in July of 2004. We then decided that we would use our children’s desks as prototypes to see if we could improve on the initial design and modernize the product without losing the traditional nature of it. See the DEVELOPMENT page for details of how the designs evolved.
The two desks we had made feature many of the important and practical requirements that we set out to achieve in the design when we started this venture but we needed to add good safety features so that whilst the products remained traditional, they were modern at the same time. We continued work to improve the design and during the early stages of our research, we took the prototypes to a local Show in order to do some market research and talk to the public at large. Since then, we have exhibited at many shows and we have found significant interest in the idea of a child's school desk set for the home - in addition, we have had to refuse many offers for the prototypes!
More research followed and we worked to set up the company infrastructure with a view to begin trading with a range of at least two quality desk products. The company website came online in early 2005 and we added online payment capability by early 2006. We were contacted by a local furniture manufacturer who then became our supplier and we began offering our two initial product sets to the market. Sales started in February of 2006 and are moving forward as we find our customers. In November 2006, we got together with The Kids Window and have had a number of retail sales though that outlet. This has now expanded to include Eurocosm UK where we also have good sales. We now sell our products via a number of Web-based Retailers and additionally, you can see a list of local shops who sell our desk sets HERE!
As of now (February 2008), we have three desk set products for sale, available in four different wood types. This year, we launched our first "Adult" school desk, The Roxburgh, based on the well received Radcliffe design, to the retail and trade market. Following the recent Furniture show at the NEC, we are set to supply our first School, with 20 desk sets going to a new private establishment in Gloucestershire, opening in September 2008. We will supply the first class of 20 pupils, in a school that will house some 116 students when fully built. Our suppliers are from outside the UK, from mainland Europe and Malaysia. We also retain a UK supplier whom we keep for customisation and for repairs. All of this allows us to be competitive on price whilst exploring new wood types and manufacturing methods and refining the product design without compromising on quality. Our suppliers build our products from sustainable forest resources and no child labour is used to make our products. We have exhibited at The Furniture Show at the NEC in Birmingham now on two occasions (January 2008 being the most recent) where we introduced the desk sets to the Trade. This has been very well received and since then, we have exhibited at both the Autumn Fair and the Grand Designs Show, as well as smaller Shows around the South East of England. Kidzdeskz Limited is registered with Companies House in the UK (company number 05173905) and we are also registered for UK VAT (VAT No.862510733). Our designs are registered with the UK Patent Office and with ACID (Anti Copying In Design). You can also see some of our customer testimonials HERE!
Carolyn and I went looking for a top quality, traditional style children's school desk product for our daughter in early 2004. Right from the start, we knew what we wanted. Our daughter's old plastic desk, bought for about £40, lasted three months and was totally unsuitable for what we had in mind and would never support our daughter's needs, either now or in the future. After a long and arduous search, we were unable to find anything on the market, both here and outside the UK that really suited our requirements. This was a huge surprise to us.
Kidzdeskz Limited
West Sussex UK
