It’s been such a busy year at Trademark again this year. By the time the New Year arrives our inhouse fitters would have managed to install 62 new bathrooms and 31 new kitchens for customers in and around the Royston area.
We welcomed Bradley Turner into the Bathroom Fit Team in January to proactively manage the shift towards bathrooms we were seeing towards the end of 2024. With stiff competition from some heavy hitting multinational companies who offer to beat any quote or finance for 7 years, our family run local independent business has had to adapt to survive and compete.
In January we supported four local village publications with print based advertising which is still relevant to our older customers who may not have embraced as much digital technology as were led to believe in the national press. It’s so important to support local enterprises and never lose sight of our community focus. We are based in the heart of Royston and Trademark prides itself on being part of this North Hertfordshire market town and providing award winning customer service to our customers. If you ever need to speak to us you can simply pop in, we might have the kettle on!
In January we also answered a call to support a local family in their fight against childhood cancer. It was especially pertinent as this young man is a relation of one of our fit team. Trademark has supported Royston in Blue year on year and is a proud sponsor of this race to raise funds and awareness for the Teenage Cancer Trust.
In January we ran special offers to highlight our supply only offerings. We put together several package offers to allow those customers who either want to fit themselves or get their builder to fit their goods the option of still buying from us and benefiting from our support with design and know-how.
We hosted a curry night at the Ashiana Indian restaurant in the town which was a great way to bring the company together early on in the year and build rapport within the team.
March was a tough month, National Insurance contributions rose, business insurance increased, business rates doubled and shop rent went up but we STILL managed to help our customers by running a great sale event. Despite all the economic pressures customers still chose Trademark to design, install and project manage their dream kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms.
2025 business analytics showed us that we were selling more than 2023 and 2024 but bathrooms were still dominating. It is very hard to compete when customers believe they’re getting such a great deal by choosing interest free for 7 years. We do not offer finance or payment plans yet when you cost us out like for like, it’s often a surprise to customers that we can be competitive with a better service offering.
By designing focussing digital marketing campaigns on our kitchen offerings, the end of March saw the shift had back to Kitchens and we were installing a 7:3 ratio kitchens to bathrooms. Dave Tavner, our company director and founder, chose Chippendale as our
primary supplier because of the British made quality of the kitchens. In fact quite often we get customers reporting that their kitchen STILL LOOKS NEW despite being installed for 10 years plus! One customer in 2025 changed their units because they wanted a colour change. The kitchen itself looked as good as the day it had been installed 8 years previously.
Our team meeting in March was held at The Banyers hotel in Royston and we looked at the team communication and project management. We also devised new ways of working as a team to ensure we remain highly effective. We shared some amazing customer feedback,
“Exceeding our expectations again. The quality of the work and can do attitude is outstanding”, Mr & Mrs Hudson
“Being a credit to your company and advising us of all potential issues upfront. The standard of workmanship and listening skills to understand exactly what we wanted, even managing to complete changes using existing materials”, Mr & Mrs Pearson.
In September we played Golf at the Whaddon 9 hole pitch and putt course which was great fun for all involved and provided some great opportunities for team bonding.
Thank you to all of our lovely customers in 2025 and previous years, everyone at Trademark wishes you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!