County firm leading the way in design and manufacture of robust furniture

Tough Furniture, based in Craven Arms, is in the process of developing a number of new products, including a daybed designed specifically for the autism market - all of which will be launched on the company’s new website.

The family-run business has nearly 30 years’ experience as a design, manufacture and supply specialist in robust furniture to challenging environments, including NHS hospitals, psychiatric wards, private care homes and SEN schools. The company also provides furniture direct to individual family settings where individuals have learning disabilities or mental health challenges.

Tough Furniture works exclusively in the area of mental health and has supplied customers in the USA, United Arab Emirates, Finland, France, Australia and New Zealand in addition to working extensively with clients across the UK. The redesign and build of the new website was carried out by Newport-based digital marketing specialists Ascendancy .

Dan Vesty, Tough Furniture Managing Director, said: “We have quite a lot of things happening in terms of new products and our new website provides us with the ideal launching pad to bring them onto the market.

“One of the things we are currently developing is a daybed which is designed specifically for the autism market. It will be another valuable addition to our range and will be available soon.

“We are quite unique in that we focus exclusively on providing robust furniture for challenging environments but also ensure we make our products look as much like traditional furniture as possible - this helps to create a more inclusive, domestic feel within a mental health setting.

“Demand for our furniture has increased significantly over the last two years of Covid and there is little doubt that mental health issues have generally become more widespread during that time. As suppliers to the NHS, we were classed as key workers during the pandemic, staying open and continuing to manufacture and supply furniture throughout - an essential service for some of the most vulnerable people in our society.”

Tough Furniture works with some of the biggest organisations and has been involved in multi-million pound projects but also maintains an ethical commitment to provide products to private families and individuals.

“We have a standard range of furniture available but it is also important for people to know that we provide a bespoke service,” Mr Vesty added. “One of the things we wanted to achieve with the new website was getting across the message that our bespoke service means there are a range of choices in terms of individual products.

“The previous website didn’t really allow us to show our full range of bespoke functionality - that is now available to us with the upgrade.

“We are very pleased with the new website - Ascendancy were very professional and listened to what we wanted. A lot of design and marketing agencies generally try to impose a particular view and be quite pushy in setting an agenda, but Ascendancy didn’t do that. They were open to our thoughts about what our website identity needed to be and how we wanted to present ourselves to the world.”

Helen Culshaw, Ascendancy Director, said: “We are delighted with the way the new website has come together.

“It was a complex project, due to the fact the products had to be set up differently on the new website compared to how they were done before. This will enable the customer to easily 'build' a product with lots of options and see the correct price displayed for those options. “This will provide a better experience for the customer and save the Tough Furniture team time when quoting for projects in the future.”