Charlie Smallbone, founder of Ledbury Studio, talks design philosophy, reinvention and resilience – all of which has seen him inducted into the KBB Retail Hall of Fame

Artisan designer. Visionary. Entrepreneur. Charlie Smallbone is an icon in the kitchen industry.

With around a 50-year career in kitchens, he not only built a premium kitchen retail empire, but created an aesthetic which is at the heart of traditional and now contemporary British kitchens.

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But how would he describe himself?

“I’m a bit of an all-rounder, I suppose, because I’ve been all those things and I’ve ended up doing what I love, working as a designer”, Charlie says.

He has founded the luxury Ledbury Studio in London, which specialises in creating one-off kitchens using a bold choice of materials.

But it hasn’t been a straightforward path to success. “It’s been a journey of reinvention”, he explains.

Trader to craftsman

“I actually saw myself as a trader”, Charlie explains talking about the beginning of his career.

After graduating from Liverpool University, with a degree in philosophy, he started out buying and selling antiques “which was basically old pine furniture” in the 1970s.

It was during this time he first took up carpentry. “Necessity is the mother of invention” he laughs, explaining he needed the skills to renovate the furniture.

Having moved the business to Wiltshire and joined by long-term friend Graham Clark, Mark Wilkinson then started working with them and formed a trio, which was ultimately to become Smallbone of Devizes

“We became a perfect triumvirate”, Charlie explains.

Mark Wilkinson took on the carpentry and Graham and Charlie took on more operational and sales roles.

Following one of the company’s furniture clients who requested a kitchen built out of timber, the rest, as they say, is history.

“I was designing and selling kitchens but the business was expanding rapidly, at that time.

So, I evolved into being a businessman. That’s when we really started recruiting and created the industry that we see now, in many ways”, says Charlie.

Building business empires

During the next two decades, it saw Mark Wilkinson leave to create Mark Wilkinson Furniture, and Smallbone of Devizes continue to grow.

The business expanded to such a size it employed around 700 people across 40 showrooms and peaked at a turnover of £70million.

Smallbone of Devizes floated on the Stock Exchange in 1986, and Charlie Smallbone sold the business to Williams Holdings two years later, before its acquisition by Gower in 1996.

Charlie turned his attention to founding a stone business Paris Ceramics, which had 10 showrooms in the states and he bought American Christopher Peacock Cabinetry. These formed part of his strategy to roll out Smallbone in the States, when he reacquired the business in 2009.

 “Unfortunately, my timing was not great because the deal went down about a month before Lehman Brothers collapse.

“I’d raised about £5 million to refinance and the idea was I would sell equity in the business.

“But our sales hit a brick wall and banks were deleveraging. We were dead in the water.”

The business went into administration, before being sold to Canburg, a company owned by investor Leo Caplan.

Charlie says “It was sad, towards the end, and I went away to lick my wounds.”

Easily one of his toughest times in business, he adds: “I don’t feel bitter about it. I guess it is how you respond, and I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now.”

Material choices

“I’ve never been interested in going back to what I’ve done before”, Charlie says explaining his next move, which was to partner with Damian Lawrence, founder and owner of La Rock joinery workshop.

He went on to be commissioned for a new kitchen for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and, following a meeting with the design director of devol, they collaborated on the creation of the Metallics Collection.

This reignited his passion for design.

“I hadn’t been a designer for 25 years at that stage”, and Charlie confesses, it forms part of his reinvention and founding of Ledbury Studio in 2018.

“I started Ledbury with a blank sheet of paper and thought about would we do differently to what we’ve done before.”

Working alongside “technical whizz” John Robinson, Charlie says the pair sat down to create kitchens where metal, wood or stone could be joined in a kitchen design.

“I’ve always been a rebel and contrary to the flow, but I felt I always had coherent views on artistic appreciation.

“We wanted the kitchens to look good but fundamentally be very different to what anybody else was doing.

“Materiality, for me, is almost as important as form and function.”

Design philosophy

So how has his design philosophy evolved from his early days selling antique pine furniture, through to Smallbone of Devizes and now?

“I’d like to think there’s an evolution but, in all honesty, my natural inclination has been to create things I see as stylish and that that I could live with myself.

“It is as simple as that and I’ve done that all my life”, Charlie says.

A design visionary, he has instigated “quite a few” kitchen trends, adding “and I’d like to think that I’m still responsible for a lot of trends going into the kitchen.”

Certainly, the industry continues to honour his designs, with a project for a property in Kensington winning International Design & Architecture Best Kitchen 2024, at the Design et Al Awards.

Retail advice

Having built two successful kitchen retail brands which resonate with the design industry and consumers, what are his secrets of success?

“It all originated with products”, Charlie says. Ledbury Studio sells around 20 one-off kitchen designs a year, with a starting price of £70,000.

“Every Tom, Dick and Harry has been saying they sell bespoke kitchens, but it’s questionable how many really are.

“What we sell are bespoke designs.

“There’s definitely a commercial element to all my designs and the question has always been where’s the gap?

“The obvious gap for Ledbury Studio was one-off projects for high-end clients.”

And he offers the advice for entrepreneurial retailers to find their own niche, adding: “Customers have to see the value in the proposition.”

Charlie continues to be inspired, not only by seeing the final kitchen installations, but also the interpretation of customer ideas into designs, “I love that process, it’s intellectually quite rigorous and creative.

“It beats playing golf and I see no reason why I should stop doing what I do. I still feel I’ve got stuff to offer”.