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Some of us are long enough in the tooth to remember sport in the
1960s, particularly professional soccer with its maximum wage cap.
This was set, for footballers, at as low as £20 per week – an awful
long way from the seemingly commonplace salaries of £5,000, £10,000,
£50,000 or even more, paid as a weekly salary to the top stars
nowadays.
Today we are used to hearing of a minimum wage. It seems impossible
to believe that employees could have been denied the chance to earn
more than a set, very low, amount. I well remember the verbal and
legal battles which were fought, particularly by Jimmy Hill, to have
that barrier removed.
What has that to do with kitchens and bathrooms? Read on and I’ll
tell you.
Playing for Chelsea in the late 1950s was a footballer by the name
of Tony Nicholas. (Playing, incidentally, alongside one of the
greatest goal-poachers of all time, Jimmy Greaves.) Had he been
playing today, Tony would undoubtedly have been one of those who
commanded a salary of thousands of pounds per week. As it was, Tony
– who was nobody’s fool – decided to put his money to work. Because,
in those days, nobody expected to make a reasonable living from
playing football, several clubs, including Chelsea, put their young
players through an apprenticeship scheme. Tony therefore trained as
a cabinet maker.
Thus he was able to open, in Chelmsford in 1963, ‘Nick’s D.I.Y.’
selling, as the name suggests, a whole range of do-it-yourself
equipment. In the ensuing years the business was very successful and
Tony, who could never resist a bargain, took to buying up and
storing all sorts of ends of lines, including kitchen and bathroom
equipment. Remember that the late 1970s and early ’80s were times of
galloping inflation, and Tony’s prudent buying made a great deal of
sense.
Tony’s success as a businessman is made evident by the fact that he
was able to retire, handing over the business to his son, Tony
junior, while he was still in his very early fifties. Tony obviously
inherited his father’s drive and business acumen. He initially set
about establishing a hold in the D.I.Y. market and built, in 1982, a
new headquarters in Colchester, later to include a specialist
kitchen and bathroom department.
However, he soon took the decision to concentrate particularly on
kitchens, and Nicholas Anthony was born. ‘Anthony Nicholas’, his
father’s name, didn’t seem quite right as a trading name and so the
names were reversed. It has been thus ever since, and the company
has now become one of the country’s foremost and most respected
kitchen and bathroom designers and installers. Upon the formation of
the new company Tony was joined by his brother, Kevin, who possessed
a flair for design, as is shown by his having been voted Kitchen
Designer of the Year in 2003.
The story was being told to me by Tony, son of the founder and
Managing Director of the company. We were seated in the company’s
newest location, 44-48 Wigmore Street, London W1, opened in March
this year. The building, on the corner of Wigmore Street and Welbeck
Street, joins the other Nicholas Anthony branches at Colchester,
Knightsbridge, and Ascot. Wigmore Street has an elegant and graceful
Grade I-listed façade, but go through the doors and you will find a
veritable theatre of kitchen and bathroom styles in an ultra-modern
setting.
“The turning point for the company,” explained Tony, “was when we
started to offer a design and installation service to our customers.
At the time we were dealing with a German company which got into
financial difficulties. We were approached by Poggenpohl, who were
then unhappy with their own dealership arrangements, and asked to
act as the major dealer for the company. And, I am happy to say, we
are still dealing with them to this day.”
In the early 1990s Nicholas Anthony really began to make their mark
in the kitchen world. As Tony says, “Many kitchen installers were
successful in the 1980s when business was good. But in the ’90s,
when things were considerably more difficult, we continued to do
excellent business. This made people sit up and take notice.”
While Nicholas Anthony do not manufacture, they deal not only with
Poggenpohl, but with other top-quality names such as Gaggenau,
Siemens, and Miele. Several of the products which they offer are, in
fact, made to their own design and exacting specification. The
company now has a commanding position dealing in the middle and top
range of kitchen and bathroom planning and installation. They have
an excellent and experienced team of designers and installers who
work with their clients every inch of the way until the work is
completed to everybody’s total satisfaction.
“Tell me,” I said to Tony, “why it is that so many kitchen designers
seem to be men and not women?”
The answer was succinct. “At least 50% of our designers are women.
And we all listen to our lady clients, often incorporating their
ideas to achieve the best possible results.”
Tony and his team decided, in 1999, to attempt what everybody told
them would not be possible – to run a volume operation while
providing the very best quality product and service. To achieve this
some fundamental changes were thought to be necessary and, as a
result, two new appointments were made – those of a Contracts
Manager (Geoff Brown) and of a Financial Director (Ian Thomas).
“I cannot emphasise enough how valuable these two appointments have
been for the company.” said Tony. “Geoff has enabled us to deal with
some of the largest prestige developers in the country on a very
professional level, while Ian has taken the burden of financial
control off my shoulders and, once again, put it on a sound and
professional footing.”
Photographer Andy Newbold and I walked round the kitchens and
bathrooms on display in the showroom. Both of us were impressed with
the style and particularly the attention to detail. “Do you have any
of the rich and famous as clients?” Andy asked innocuously. Tony
smiled at him. “Yes, we certainly do,” he said. “But our clients are
absolutely entitled to their privacy. I couldn’t possibly comment!”
Tony senior is still very much alive and active, and, as part of his
recent sixtyfifth birthday celebrations, sons Tony and Kevin took
their father back to meet the current Chelsea team. Gianfranco Zola
presented him with a signed copy of a book about the past and
present Chelsea strikers, in which they both appear. Jimmy Floyd
Hasselbaink demanded to know why he, Jimmy, wasn’t included, to be
told firmly by Gianfranco that only the best strikers were there!
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