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28th January 2021
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Growing Kudos at 20 years
UK manufacturer, Kudos Showering Products is marking its 20th year of trading with ambitious growth plans for the business.
The company introduced new management into the business at the beginning of 2018 and their skillset and drive has transformed operations, giving chairman and founder Bruce Ledwith a renewed confidence to invest for growth.
The company invested in two new directors for the business, Mark Hill (below, left) as managing director and Nick Graville (below, right) as sales & marketing director last year and subsquent investment has been made in new machinery, an expanded warehouse facility and production improvements plus a host of new products to be launched throughout 2019. It may be an uncertain time for some businesses with Brexit looming but Kudos is going for growth.
"Bruce appointed myself and Nick Graville in early 2018," says Mark Hill. "He knew the company had built a reputation for brilliantly engineered, well tested products but had the foresight to recognise that for the business to achieve its growth potential he had to invest in the right management skillset.
"My skillset is in finance, process, change management and continual improvement and, with the hard work of everyone in the team, we have transformed our operations processes over 2018 using 5S, lean six Sigma and continuous improvement principles to deliver some great efficiency improvements for the business."
Bruce Ledwith adds: "The new management team identified many efficiency gains for the business and very quickly made some great workflow improvements. 2018 culminated in an investment to move all our shower tray production to our facility in Coleraine, Northern Ireland freeing space for a new 40,000sq.ft finished goods warehouse, situated in an expanded facility two miles down the road from our production unit. This move alone has enabled us to pass on efficiency savings by reducing the price of our new Connect2 shower trays to our customers.
"I am delighted to see the lean improvements made in such a short time by the whole team, it is affording me the luxury of focusing on my skillset of designing well engineered products for the market and Nick to sell them into our growing customer base. We are very positive for the future."
Kudos has been designing and manufacturing shower products at their Cumbria facility since 1999. Their product portfolio includes shower enclosures, shower trays, over-bath screens and wet-room solutions and they are sold through bathroom showrooms and merchants across the UK.
Made in Britain member, Kudos shower products, produces all its products in the heart of the beautiful Lake District, and is justifiably proud of its heritage and to be one of the few remaining bathroom manufacturers still committed to producing products in the UK.
T: 01539 564040
E: [email protected]
W: www.kudjosshowers.co.uk
1st February 2019