Installer of the Year

BECOMING INSTALLER OF THE YEAR ...

At the prestigious ek&bbusiness Awards & Review 2017 which was held recently in Central London, LSI Interiors Ltd was presented with the much sought after ‘Installer of the Year’ award.

As the market leading KBB installer magazine, we were the first to speak to LSI owner Layne Ives. We asked how he feels about winning the award and how his business has risen to such prominence:

Many congratulations Layne, what does this honour mean to you?

I’m delighted to have won the award as I put so much effort into making sure my clients receive the best service and feel I have been rewarded for this.

How do you think you can use it to your best advantage?

I’ll be discussing contracts with retailers so winning the award will give them more confidence in appointing us.

What advice do you have for anyone else being nominated?

Be prepared for the judges, you won’t pull the wool over their eyes so make sure you’re prepared to be quizzed and that you are as good as you think you are. One little tip … the inspection was something I’ve never experienced before and so I didn’t know what to expect, but with hindsight, make sure you clean under the units! 

“I’m delighted to have won the award as I put so much effort into making sure my clients receive the best service and feel I have been rewarded for this.”

So going right back to the beginning, what got you into fitting kitchens and bathrooms?

I’d been in the building industry since I left school and having worked with many skilled tradesmen I become a multi-tradesman, a bit of an all-rounder really, which is essential for KBB installations and so I seized the opportunity. LSI Interiors is set up quite differently now and we project manage individual trades but I think this is largely due to the fact that quality multi-tradesman are hard to find these days.

Do you have any retail contracts?

Yes, I have a contract with John Lewis of Hungerford where I began installing kitchens nine years ago, I now have teams covering London and the surrounding areas looking after the majority of its London installations, they have been great in supporting me whilst building the business.

How long have you been installing?

The best part of 20 years, I’m showing my age now ….. I started early ha ha.

What’s has been your biggest challenge whilst growing your business?

Finding the right balance between working on the tools, which ultimately pays the wages, and doing the admin work that had to be done to ensure that invoices were paid, it seemed that there were never enough hours in the day.

Why do you work with retailers?

It’s good to be associated with retailers as they provide regular work whilst reassuring private clients in the quality of our services.

What do you want from a retail contract?

Its two fold really, I need regular work for my current teams and I want to continue to grow my business and so I need to create 

more work for the future which will allow me increase the amount of teams that I have.

What’s the secret of growing a successful business?

Effort, commitment, determination and passion are just some of the essential ingredients required.

How has BiKBBI helped your journey?

When carrying out a survey I always make a potential client aware that we are members and ask them to visit the website for reassurance, this virtually always gives us the upper hand over our competitors who have no BiKBBI accreditation.

What is your biggest challenge today?

To be honest, as the years have passed I’ve overcome many challenges already so business actually does run very smoothly; however, if you had asked me the same question a few years ago, it would definitely have been the difficulty in finding the best overall system to run a successful installation business and, vitally, finding an admin team as good as the one that I am lucky to have now to enable me to run it.

What’s next for LSI?

To expand the business further. Subsequently, I’ll be speaking with more retailers in the coming months. I also want to expand our building department where we complete extensions, loft conversions and other refurbishment work. The business is definitely well positioned to take the next step along our growth path.

Will LSI be utilising the BiKBBI led apprenticeship scheme?

I would love to, it’s so important that we pass our experience onto our future installers and give the youngsters an opportunity, I’m hearing that we are a dying trade and so if true, developing more apprentices is vital!

If you can offer one piece of advice for an apprentice, what will it be?

To watch and listen to those who give you an opportunity. To arrive on time for work and to be clean, tidy and presentable as first impressions are so important as you meet new clients nearly every week.

And if you had one piece of advice for an existing installer wanting to grow his business, what would it be?

To ensure that you employ the right people as you’ll be relying on them to produce the goods on your behalf on a day-to-day basis. It’s important to remember that you are only as good as your last job and so the good reputation you have painstakingly built over a number of years can quickly change for the worse should the wrong team come on board. Always make sure you monitor your teams closely and audit their work!

What’s the future for LSI?

To continue to grow the business and consider each opportunity that comes our way, especially as we now have so much expertise to offer.