DESK Warehouse, one of the UK and Ireland's leading suppliers of office furniture, has completed a £500,000 investment to double the size of its Belfast headquarters.
The move has been two years in the making, first having to go through the planning bureaucracy of converting part of the listed 17th century Owen O'Cork linen mill at 288 Beersbridge Road into business usage, and then the onset or coronavirus.
But owner Allister Mulligan said: "We got there in the end, and customers will see a real difference."
He added: "Our main showroom now extends to around 15,000 sq feet, easily the biggest in Northern Ireland, and we have another 50,000 sq feet of storage space.
"But getting so much bigger doesn't mean we've lost that personal touch with our customers, who come here from all arts and parts."
Allister, who started the business 27 years ago when he went to an auction to buy himself a desk and ended up buying 350 of them, is proud of the company ethos at Desk Warehouse (https://www.desk-warehouse.co.uk).
"We're not some huge multinational company, with a call-centre answering service and a distribution hub in the middle of nowhere.
"We’re a family-owned business, with a dedicated staff of ten people who deal with our customers on a very personal level.
"Our business model is unique in its field, because while we do a significant portion of our sales online, we still have a growing bricks and mortar element to the company, hence this major investment..
"People don't always want to buy from a website or catalogue. They want to walk in here to see it and feel it and touch it."
Home-working has become the new way of life for almost half of Northern Ireland employees, and Allister believes it's a trend which will continue even in the months and years ahead.
"Those tens of thousands of people working at home want more than a wicker chair sitting at the dining room table. They want quality desks and chairs, and that is our forte.
"We are able to bulk-purchase, and that means we can pass on huge savings to our customers.
"We have thousands of products in stock for the office or home office, including desks, ergonomic chairs and seating, filing cabinets and storage."
He added: "The standard people are looking for has increased dramatically, and while you can buy a basic desk from £40, there are options to suit any budget and individual taste.
"We also offer a free office planning service and will gladly make recommendations for you, with our design team able to work closely with companies and individuals, both on site and in our showrooms, to get to know exactly what works for them."
