The Importance Of British Manufacturing

DEVELOPING SKILLS FOR FUTURE PROSPERITY

With decades of experience, Gaze Burvill’s workshop thrives on the talented work of our craftsmen and without them, we would not be able to create such unique, innovative designs. Several of our craftsmen started working for us as apprentices, painstakingly acquiring the unique skills to make our collections, of a quality that would be appreciated and understood by the best of our household-name furniture makers of old, who, in their day, were as innovative and ground-breaking as Gaze Burvill is today.

We work closely with training providers and local colleges with specialist courses such as Chichester college to provide us with talented apprentices. “I’m really proud to support British furniture making and develop talent within the industry” says Christian Notley MBE, Head of Furniture Studies at Chichester College. “Without the links that we have with companies such as Gaze Burvill we wouldn’t be able to keep up to date with the world of fine furniture making and apply it to the training of skilled craftsmen. Together we can help build and regenerate the British economy.”

We are all novices at the start, but it does warm the heart to see a person develop mastery, a feel for a piece of oak, an instinctive and informed understanding of how it should be shaped, and another to know how an oak table should be designed to be stable and last through decades of weather.

WHAT MAKES GAZE BURVILL DIFFERENT?

A new era is dawning where being average is no longer acceptable. People care that things are made well, with great care for material, sustainable provenance, and true quality of manufacture. They value the journey that their furniture piece has taken, and the contribution of our know-how, gained, often the hard way, over many years of accumulated experience and skill.

Gaze Burvill is not alone, however. There is a new pantheon of British Manufacturers emerging and taking their message, and high quality product to the world – we are just delighted to be a part of it.

To understand what makes us different, we must first talk about our oak. It has always been incredibly important to us to know the provenance of our materials and to have confidence that they come from a sustainably managed source. Not only that, but to ensure the very highest quality finish on our furniture, we use only prime grade oak, and we use only the most stable of the oak boards, from a quarter-sawn cut, a highly skilled process only offered by a handful of trusted mills.

THE MARK OF A CRAFTSMAN

As part of our mission to craft the finest luxury outdoor furniture, we take great pride in our craftsmanship and attention to detail, whether at the design stage, during manufacturing or in our aftercare service. Not only does this apply to the visual design of our pieces, but also in the parts that are not obviously in view such as the steam bent frames or detail of the joints, which make furniture uniquely strong and stable, and which allow the wood to expand and contract through the seasons. Each craftsman puts his own mark on his finished piece and takes great pride in the knowledge that it will give lasting pleasure to its owner for years to come.

Our relationship with customers is paramount. We believe that when you choose a piece from Gaze Burvill it is just the start of a partnership. Because of the level of detail, care and attention we provide, many of our customers have been loyal to us throughout the years and it’s not unusual for our new customers to have been recommended by a friend.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO BUY BRITISH MADE?

We are most fortunate to have our base in one of the loveliest parts of the English countryside, easy to reach from London, and visitors are welcome to visit our showroom and workshops by appointment to see first-hand how our outdoor furniture is made. Guests are able to see the unique attention to detail and craftsmanship and meet the team.

Our site in Hampshire is home to both our offices, design studio and our workshop, so, from oak boards to the finished outdoor furniture, everything is designed, made and prepared for delivery at one site. This makes for a smooth and efficient process, which we control from start to finish.

We are proud to fly the flag for British manufacturing, and the unique quality of what we make sees us exporting across Europe, USA and further afield.

We are incredibly proud to invest in and support our staff, many from our local rural community. We have been involved in a number of apprenticeship schemes which has given us many talented craftsmen who have helped the company to grow.

For customers in the UK, a British made piece will have less far to travel in its finished state, and even the raw material has not far to travel to come to us, being sourced from UK or the Continent, most often from France. We are proud to be able to use PEFC and FSC approved timber for all our pieces.