Quality Furniture Company make over 250,000 sofas a year and are one of the largest manufacturers in the UK. They supply all the major upholstery retailers including Next, DFS, John Lewis, Argos and Laura Ashley.

Following a period of accelerated growth, the CEO of the business, Vernon Goldberg, approached the Design Council to discuss how design could support a business change process aimed at supporting a change in strategic direction.

After a commissioning process design and branding agency The Allotment were selected to support this strategic programme.

According to subsequent research carried out by The Allotment, the Quality Furniture Company’s customers’ expectations around product innovation were increasing – as category leaders in their supply chain the retailers expected the Quality Furniture Company to lead innovation.

The breakthrough, the designers say, came from the realisation that one of the key drivers for innovation is asking questions; questions such as why, what and how?

“We discovered that QFC was already asking big questions of its people to drive continuous improvement. We took this as the core idea for the brand’s development. The Q in ‘QFC’ became the question and the big idea for the business. By asking questions the business would continuously deliver better products and in-turn become indispensable to its customers and delight the consumer purchasing the sofa. This became the vision and spurred a new set of values based on imagination, achievement and support” explain the designers.

Every employee was subsequently given a brand book which provided the ‘Why’, explaining the strategic rationale behind the new brand and what it means for them. At the same time a new website was launched together with new signage across QFC’s two manufacturing sites.

The Allotment
www.theallotmentbranddesign.com