An expanding family-run firm is investing \u00a3500,000 to create a new showroom centre for\u00a0its\u00a0blossoming\u00a0garden rooms business.<\/p>\n
Rubicon Garden Rooms has already started the transformation of the site, a former farmyard near the North Wales\/Cheshire border, to meet the demand from customers eager to use their garden spaces.<\/p>\n
Bosses said the demand for\u00a0 its garden rooms, especially home offices, gyms, entertainment spaces, art studios and granny annexes, mushroomed during the Covid pandemic and has been growing ever since.<\/p>\n
The company specialises in making zero maintenance garden rooms using aircraft\u00a0 technology learned by founder and managing director John Lyon when he previously worked as an engineer at Airbus.<\/p>\n
The main showroom and new head office are already open and, once completed, the complex on the outskirts of\u00a0Penyffordd\u00a0near Chester\u00a0will be known as The Village,\u00a0where Rubicon\u2019s wide\u00a0variety of\u00a0garden rooms will be on display.<\/p>\n
The firm employs 15 installers and three office staff to ensure customers\u2019 needs are met and the surge in orders means there are more jobs on the way.<\/p>\n
Supporting John in the growth of the company is son Rob, the firm\u2019s\u00a0sales and marketing manager.<\/p>\n
Customers come from a wide area, including Shropshire, Merseyside, the Wirral,\u00a0Manchester,\u00a0Cheshire and North Wales.<\/p>\n
The Village\u00a0will offer them a chance to see, feel and\u00a0take a tour of the\u00a0company\u2019s eye-catching garden buildings.<\/p>\n
According to John, the garden buildings have endless uses \u2013 with customers only limited by their imagination.<\/p>\n
He said the transformation of the site on Old Hope Road was continuing at pace.<\/p>\n
John, an aircraft\u00a0engineer for 21 years,\u00a0said: \u201cBefore we bought it, the site was an old farmyard, with some old, dilapidated buildings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve\u00a0demolished some of them and rebuilt a new office space, and built a storeroom\u00a0and workshop, and have completely refurbished a building used to store hay bales to create a showroom area.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd over the next 12 months customers will see all the outdoor display areas completed with another seven garden rooms plus a large two-bedroom granny annexe.<\/p>\n
The development of The Village means the company is no longer using its former site at Shotton\u2019s Deeside Enterprise\u00a0Centre and\u00a0has moved all its operations to the\u00a0Penyffordd\u00a0base, located in a beautiful rural setting on the A5104 only a mile from Junction 36 of the A55.<\/p>\n
John started the company as a building firm in 2006 and started manufacturing and installing garden rooms in 2013.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWith my aerospace background, I knew about the composite side of things\u00a0and I started wondering if I could offer a home office which\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0need maintenance.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack then, people\u2019s\u00a0perception\u00a0of what a garden room was, was either a shed, a summer\u00a0house or a conservatory.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Covid came along, all of a sudden\u00a0so many people started working from home, and they started thinking they needed a home office, and we started to grow the business\u00a0from there.<\/p>\n
John added: \u201cI know it\u2019s\u00a0an old cliche that staff are your most important asset, but in this type of business, and in a lot of businesses, they certainly are.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout good staff, it doesn\u2019t matter how good I am at selling what we do and developing what we do, and\u00a0designing what we do \u2013 when the staff go out there to fit it, it must be right, it must be up to our standard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key to our continuing success is focusing on the detail. As a result, Rubicon has won multiple awards for s quality, innovation and overall customer experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were first garden rooms business in the UK to be approved by Trading Standards, meaning you can buy with confidence, safe in the knowledge that everything is being taken\u00a0care of by a team that knows what it is doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cRubicon Garden Rooms are made to measure, giving you the chance to find a perfect fit for your garden, and most of our buildings do not require planning permission.\u201d<\/p>\n
John started his aerospace career\u00a0as an engineer apprentice\u00a0at\u00a0aircraft\u00a0firm Hawker\u00a0Siddeley\u00a0which\u00a0later morphed into British Aerospace and\u00a0then Airbus.<\/p>\n
He became a manager and then head of production for the Hawker business jet, leading a staff of 350 workers.<\/p>\n
Son Rob joined the company in 2021 and he deals with customer inquiries and showroom appointments.<\/p>\n
He also visits customers to take photos and videos of their garden rooms for the firm\u2019s social media content as part of his role.<\/p>\n
Rob said the father and son dynamic with John works well, and he was proud to play a key role in the firm\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIt\u2019s really nice for me actually to see how good my dad is at what he does and how successful he is and to learn about how he communicates with customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do work well as a team, and it\u2019s a really exciting time in everything that is happening with the development of the new premises.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rob, who trained and worked as a professional actor and is involved in theatre groups in the region, said he particularly enjoyed the creative element of the work the company does.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThere is a big element of creativity in what we are doing in terms of when people come in and tell us about the sorts of things they are looking to get from the garden room they are looking to\u00a0purchase.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be particularly exciting when people come in and are looking for a garden room for their hobby or passion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat could be musicians for example, or photography studios, or someone looking for a fitness studio.\u201d<\/p>\n
As previously, showroom visits will be by prior appointment only, so the firm can ensure sales staff are available to give the personal attention customers value.<\/p>\n