We’re thrilled to announce that Grosvenor Interiors has just celebrated its 25th birthday!!
We’ve seen many changes and evolved substantially over the years so we spoke to our Head Honcho, Colin, to get the lowdown on why and how it all happened:
“I started Grosvenor Interiors after the company I was working for went bust, leaving me without a job. They left behind several uncompleted projects so myself and the Design Manager approached some of the clients and suggested that we finish the jobs for them.
In the early days, we were dealing with high-worth individuals on domestic projects. We were quite successful at that and I was interested in getting rich and making a profit. Then my son Adam became seriously ill and it became very obvious that he was significantly affected by the environment in which he was treated. He would be very negative in some environments but in better surroundings, his manner would change completely. When he died, the notion of making money didn’t seem to be quite so important, because no matter how rich I was, it wasn’t going to change his outcome.
Adam had been an ambassador for the Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT) so Simon Davies, the CEO of Teenage Cancer Trust, asked me if I would do some work with them improving TCT wards. This meant a significant learning curve due to compliance and regulatory issues in hospitals. Initially we did this free of charge but over time we were doing more and more so TCT started paying us for the work. However, I felt guilty about making money out of it so Simon suggested that we continue doing the paid work but give a donation to the charity if we had made a profit out of them at the end of the year.
That seemed a great solution so I agreed to that and we did more and more work for TCT – they had very big budgets to spend and encouraged us to challenge environments and challenge infection control teams and building teams to allow us to use different materials, different furniture that you wouldn’t normally see.
As we opened more and more TCT units, the units either side of them would look cheap and uninspiring in comparison so they would frequently approach us and ask us to do something with a lighter touch for them.
At this point I took a conscious decision to change the emphasis of the business from profit driven to purpose driven but we still needed to make a profit to survive. The business evolved and we started doing all sorts of work inside hospitals, sometimes for the NHS. More recently, we have moved into schools which broadens our experience which is important.
One of the strengths of Grosvenor is that all our staff care about what we do and why we do it. We’ve all had life experiences where ourselves or loved ones have needed to be in hospital and so we are very aware how important the environment is. Everybody is keen to get as much reach as we can and enhance as many spaces as possible so the maximum number of people reap the benefit of improved spaces”.
One highlight of which I am particularly proud is the transformation of the maternity bereavement suite in Leicester for which we won an award. This area accommodates families who are in the unfortunate position of having to give birth to a stillborn. The ward matron told us it was a space she used to be embarrassed to take people to, but she is now proud and delighted to offer it to people who are in the unfortunate position of needing to use it.
Another highlight was attending the Royal opening of the TCT unit in Leicester. I was invited to give a short speech. Following my speech, a woman gave me a donation to the charity. She explained that her son had been going to the hospital for chemo for three years and she had always had to drag him there kicking and screaming but now he had seen the new space, he couldn’t wait till he had his next round (of chemo). This was a very rewarding moment.
Current priorities for the company are to continue to manage the impact of covid and look at being more sustainable and having less impact on the planet”.
We asked Colin about his various hobbies and what he likes to do in his spare time. His happy place is on a motorbike, in particular touring in France and he would very much like to do more of that. Over the years Colin has participated in some very adventurous pursuits to raise money for charity including climbing Kilimanjaro and Everest Base Camp; He’s also hiked to Machu Picchu and run many marathons (slowly, he says!). Colin also sat on an appeal board charged with the task of raising £3.5 million for building a new Teenage Cancer Trust unit at the Royal Marsden Hospital. Colin’s not one for sitting around – he’s been hang gliding, speedboating, potholing, quad biking, bungee jumping and trekking, to name just a few. But what’s he not so keen on? “Jumping out of planes with a parachute as it really hurts if you land badly!”
