Cooking up jobs at new kitchen firm workshop

Countryside Kitchens, which has an office in Swinton and a showroom in Edinburgh, had outsourced the manufacturing of its bespoke cabinets to a company in Yorkshire for 26 years.

But the family firm, which celebrates its 40th anniversary next month, used lockdown to review its operation and decided to take full control of its own work.

Four new staff started this week at the company’s new workshop at Pinnacle Hill industrial estate and more jobs may be created in the future.

Design director Shona Ponder, who owns and runs the business with husband and finance director Jerry, said: “Having our own workshop is an exciting step and really feels like we are enhancing out status as a company in the Borders. We are taking on four new people and hope to take on more in the future. “This move allows us to follow through our orders from start to finish by giving us complete control. It means we can manage the timetable of all projects without relying on someone else.”

Underscoring the firm’s family ethos, the couple’s son, Elliot, will be in charge of the workshop, while daughter Susie recently came on board to look after IT and computer aided design (CAD) as design technician.

“This is a big step for us and very exciting,” said Elliot, who was previously involved in the design side of the business. “It’s a great opportunity to grow the business. We can now welcome trade enquiries from architects, builders and joiners as well as our traditional customers.”

While luxury, bespoke kitchens are the company’s bread and butter, demand has grown for home office projects as a consequence of rapidly changing working habits. “We’ve had a lot more enquiries about home offices,” adds Shona. “We also do bedrooms, boot rooms, utilities, pantries and individual pieces of furniture. If it can be drawn, it can be made.”