Winner at the KBBFocus Awards 2023

November 2023

We are delighted to announce that Simon Taylor Furniture was the winner of Apprenticeship Scheme of the Year 2023 at the KBBFocus Awards & Celebration held on 30^th November. The annual awards event, run by online magazine, KBBFocus, recognises the past year’s achievements in the kitchens and bathrooms industries across a range of categories. This year, the glittering occasion was attended by 400 guests at The Brewery in The City of London, and was hosted by stand-up comedian Daliso Chaponda.

This is the 4^th industry award that we have won during 2023, and we won the same award for our promotion of apprenticeships in 2022. Our apprenticeship scheme, run in partnership with Rycotewood College in Oxford, is a Level 2 Furniture Manufacturer Apprenticeship; a fully developed programme specifically designed for bespoke furniture manufacturers. With academic modules held at the college, work-based training is provided at our cabinet workshop in Bierton, Bucks.

In April 2023, we held our first Apprenticeship Open Day where we invited local teenagers and their parents to visit our cabinet workshop to see bespoke furniture being hand-crafted, and to meet the current apprentices. From that open day, we recruited our third apprentice on the scheme. With plans to extend the scheme to include an installation-focused apprenticeship, the date for next year’s Apprenticeship Open Day will be announced in February 2024.

In our 38^th year of trading, we design, make and install all bespoke furniture projects. Together with winning Bathroom Designer of the Year 2023 and Installation Company of the Year 2023 at the kbbreview Awards in March, our manging director, Simon Taylor, was given an Outstanding Achievement Award to the Kitchens and Bathrooms Industry at the BKU Awards in June.

Simon Taylor Furniture is already shortlisted for Installation Business of the Year 2024 at the BiKKBi Awards, which will be held at the QEII Centre in Westminster next February.