The £500,000 transformation of a former farmyard into a showroom centre has helped a garden rooms firm boost sales by 25%.
Growing demand for the bespoke buildings – developed using aviation technology – has led to Rubicon Garden Rooms expanding its workforce and growing its order book.
The success story was highlighted during a ministerial visit by Ken Skates MS, Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales, who toured the company’s site in Penyffordd on the Cheshire/North Wales border.
Once fully completed in the summer, the complex will be known as The Village, where Rubicon's wide range of garden rooms will be on display.
Founder and managing director John Lyon said the development was already playing a key role in the growth of the business. It allows customers to see first-hand the variety of buildings which can be used as home offices, granny annexes, spas, gyms, entertainment spaces and art and music studios amongst other things.
As a result, it had been the best start to a year the company has had since they were inundated with requests for home offices during the Covid pandemic which sparked the work from home phenomenon.
In the last 12 months the company has taken on four more staff, taking its headcount up to 20 workers.
Mr Lyon, who used his background as an aircraft engineer to develop zero maintenance, high durability garden rooms, said:
“Fortunately, we are enjoying the best start to any year we have had since Covid. This time this year compared to this time last year we are at about a 25 per cent increase in turnover.
“I put the majority of that down to the fact that we have this new show centre. The market for what we do has been very strong and positive and developing the new site has made a massive difference for customers – the investment is definitely paying off.
“Customers can now see exactly what they are getting for their money. They can stand in, walk in, touch and feel, just like they do with a car in a car showroom.”
Mr Lyon's son Rob joined the company in 2021 as the firm’s sales and marketing manager.
Rob Lyon said:
“We have customers in a 70-mile radius so that includes North Wales, Manchester, Stoke, Liverpool, the Wirral. We are selling the buildings to people for example who need more space, and it is half the price of a traditional extension.
“One of the main growth markets for us is the huge demand for annexes for older people. They sell their house, buy one of our garden annexes and install it in the garden of the daughter and son.”
Mr Skates said:
“The firm’s base is in a great location and so accessible and it is marvellous what Rubicon Garden Rooms have done and what they have developed.
“To start with a start-up unit in Deeside and then to move to a new site which is being developed so well works perfectly for the company. Every country needs a mixed economy and businesses of different sizes across different sectors.
“It is also great to have a specialism in something and here in North Wales we really are at the cutting edge when it comes to advanced manufacturing and using different composites for manufacturing and providing services to the public and other businesses.
“Rubicon has grown and has a fantastic history and a great back story. It has grown from Deeside where they had start-up units to now in Penyffordd where they have an entire village which will soon be completed. They provide vital employment opportunities to dozens of people and they really are at the forefront of this particular sector. Their product is saving councils and families money and it is great to see they have a strategy for growth. Welsh Government is delighted with the way that innovative entrepreneurs and companies like Rubicon operate in Wales.”
