Profile: Liz Close

10 April 2024

Liz Close of Rawside has disrupted the office furniture manufacture and design market.

Words By Emily Martin

IF YOU haven’t come across British-based designer/manufacturer of office furniture Rawside, then it probably won’t be long until you will. A relative newcomer to the market, which was set up by partners Liz Close and Richard Gann in 2014, Rawside’s outsideindustry approach is striking a chord with its customers and disrupting what the company calls ‘a traditionally formulaic market’. Its offerings of workplace solutions come with a motto ‘made with soul’, giving insight on how company culture, values and the journey to create a more sustainable company is setting it apart from its competition.

The London-based Rawside was created with a yearning to design and make furniture that ‘flipped the lid on the standard commercial offering’. The duo first set up in Brixton as an interior design studio, designing workspace interior solutions, and with a small workshop. Today the business puts product design and manufacture at its core at its larger base on the edge of South Downs National Park in Hampshire, which it relocated to in 2022.

‘It really was the fact that we just could not find good furniture for commercial office space,’ says Close on setting up the business in Brixton. ‘There were formulaic white desks, you know, [which were] very uninspiring. And we had some really good clients when we were in our interior design studio…and they just didn’t want any of the furniture that was on offer and that’s when we thought, “well, let’s design something that that really resonates with these sorts of businesses”, because those were the sorts of businesses really at that time that were kind of shaping the way that the new office looked like. So it very much started as a byproduct of us not being able to find any furniture that we particularly liked.’

Rawside’s success comes from its out-of-the-box thinking, thanks to partners Liz Close and Richard Gann (pictured below). By allowing customers to have flexibility in their chosen design schemes, Rawside has gathered a loyal client base. Image Credit: Julia Conway

Its product designs were getting attention, which have always centred around sustainable design and manufacture. Close and Gann’s time was becoming more consumed with manufacturing products with big contract wins after being awarded Manufacturer of the Year at the Mixology Awards. They wound down the design practice and focused efforts into Rawside.

‘We really focused on the aesthetic, which was kind of raw and industrial and because at that time that was really what was resonating with people,’ says Close. ‘But, since then, it’s evolved more into a mature offering, but still – at the heart and at the core of it all – ensuring the materials and processes that we use to manufacture [our products] are still as sustainable as we can possibly make them…[as] we’ve always been really passionate about it. We used to see offices being stripped out and materials and furniture just being dumped. This is so wasteful. So we really wanted to make sure that we were designing furniture that was using good materials and that was built to last and that was that’s still exactly where we’re coming from today.’

Last year Rawside achieved B Corp certification, marking a major milestone in its commitment to creating a business for good. An ‘all-encompassing’ certification, Close says it means Rawside can articulate its products in a clear way for its customers, whilst setting a pathway for continuous improvement. ‘We were extremely proud to become B Corp certified, which is an amazing achievement for us’, she explains. ‘It was very much about our governance, our people, our customers and our suppliers, and a really good holistic certification that measured all parts of the business; and that has been an incredible experience for us.’

Rawside has the great products and the sustainability story, but its USP is an outside industry approach to the sector, which Close says is appealing to clients. After completing a manufacturing engineering and management degree, she took a job in management consultancy. Through one of her clients, which was relocating offices, she was tasked with its office move, and first introducing her to interior design. She describes the ‘bonkers’ approach to setting up Rawside going full circle; leading her back to her original degree route, using her ‘very dusty-sort-of-cobweb’ knowledge of manufacturing.

‘We’ve always employed out of industry, so people come into the business with real sort of freshness and a real desire to be part of it and when people meet them, they feel that sort of refreshing approach to things’, she says. ‘And you know, they’re just such a good, friendly bunch and always go out of their way to give their customers as much and more than they expect. And I think that, without them, if we just employed a load of furniture industry kind of experts, we probably wouldn’t be where we are now.’

When Rawside started making furniture in London, it did so at a base south of the river which is historically known for being out of people’s way (try getting a black cab driver taking you south of the Thames after 10pm). But Close and Gann got people through their showroom doors by inviting them on furniture tours. ‘And I think that that’s probably where the original disruptive influence came from,’ adds Close. ‘It was the fact that we were making non-conforming products: we were offering the non-standard standards. So we were allowing people to tailor their products that we were offering to suit what they wanted and people could come and they could walk around the factory.’

And now Rawside gets clients to its Hampshire operation, which includes three buildings and now is obtaining planning permission for a fourth. Sited on a farm – as opposed to an industrial estate, as Close points out – it’s a short journey from the couple’s home, but with easy access in and out of London.

It also relocated its Brixton showroom, opting to stay out of the heart of Clerkenwell yet realising the need to be near, and so took residency in the Featherstone building; a new development by Derwent London.

‘It’s so brilliantly designed [and it] really suited us’, says Close. We were incredibly lucky, I’d say, that we managed to relocate our factory in June 2022 and open a new showroom in June 2023. The showroom has really hit a chord as well as people that went to our little kind of Hobbit hole in Brixton. They now come here and they’re a bit like: “Oh my goodness, wow, what have you guys done?” It’s sort of really given us a new exposure in the market, I’d say.’

It has been quite a journey for the company, taken over a short period of time of 10 years. It’s only the start for this manufacturer with 2024 and beyond already looking markedly busy for Close and Gann with plans for more building work to further its capability in house. ‘And to really sort of develop our product road map sort of along the in response to what our customers need and the way that the kind of workplace is changing,’ continues Close. ‘We’re also we are also playing with a domestic range of products. A lot of our products slightly crossover anyway. I think that will probably keep us busy for a couple of years at least.’