Mark Butterfield has always had a passion for making things and initially trained in the building industry. At the age of 17 however, a local cabinet-maker spotted by chance a chest of drawers Mark had made himself with hand tools, and Mark was offered a position as an apprentice cabinet-maker. Over the next 16 years Mark built his way up from the workshop floor to supervisory and then management positions.
In January 2005 Mark seized the opportunity to build a high quality furniture design, manufacture and fitting business in his own name.
With only the garden shed and a few hand tools to work with however, the business quickly grew too large for Mark to operate on his own. Manufacturing was outsourced to two workshops in Eastern Europe that were able to produce top quality hand built furniture to Mark’s exacting requirements. All finishing was completed back in Somerset, using local self-employed craftsmen. Mark remained very much ‘hand’s on’ however, undertaking all the design and fitting of the furniture himself.
In 2010, with the number of happy clients growing, Mark was finally able to start setting up his own workshop based in Wellington, Somerset, just five minutes from the original garden shed where it all started!
Mark feels privileged to have learnt his trade from true craftsmen from not only the UK, but also from other parts of Europe. He is now also extremely pleased and proud to be able to pass his knowledge onto his growing team in Somerset who are not just designing and finishing, but also now manufacturing in Britian.